NASCAR Cup Series champion and Las Vegas native Kyle Busch will forever be memorialized at the short track where he grew up racing .
The Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Wednesday reopened The Bullring, the ⅜-mile short track on the speedway facility where Kyle and older brother Kurt cut their teeth before they both rose to successful NASCAR careers.
At The Bullring’s entry path to the grandstands for fans sits a new commemorative display for Kyle Busch, who died at 41 on May 21. The large rock, which was helped put together by one of Kyle Busch’s sponsors from his youth, Star Nursery, features the two-time Cup Series champion doing his signature bow.
“It’s a nice tribute and I’m thankful for the track to put that there with Kyle’s legacy,” Kurt Busch said Wednesday at The Bullring. “It’s something you don’t want to see, but it’s a nice tribute. It puts a nice exclamation point on what Kyle has done with his racing career.
“I hope it motivates kids all throughout when they walk by that rock and they show their tribute or say their condolences – it’s a motivational thing when I see that rock. I’m thankful for Las Vegas Motor Speedway to put that up for my brother.”
Bullring ‘reignited’
Las Vegas Motor Speedway this summer announced it was going to repave The Bullring and the track had a grand reopening Wednesday with Kurt Busch and others from the local racing community in attendance.
The backstretch of the track says, “Forever Rowdy.” On Oct. 2, during the NASCAR Cup Series weekend at LVMS, the track will host the Kyle Busch Classic in a day of racing that will feature the ARCA Menards Series West, the CARS Tour Series West, late model, modifieds, bandoleros and legends cars.
“This is one of the most unique and fun hometowns to ever represent. It’s Las Vegas,” said Kurt Busch, who was the 1996 Bullring track champion.
“To race here and have this track and the community of people that helped us and now everyone’s giving back in a way to reflect and showcase what Kyle has done, what we’ve been able to do and other families have been able to do in the motor sports world by racing here and putting in the effort here to make it to the big time.”
Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion who was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January, said he remembers coming to The Bullring in the 1980s to watch his father Tom race at the track, which led to Kurt and Kyle’s beginnings in racing. The Bullring has also been the starting grounds for current Cup Series drivers Riley Herbst and Noah Gragson.
“It takes that full effort of everyone investing into a project and that’s where you see different people from all over helping rebuild The Bullring,” Kurt Busch said. “To have this reignited, this is definitely the showcase on the West Coast and the Southwest for sure that those races want to come here and race. …
“This place is ready and it’s fun to have this as my hometown track.”
‘Vision for The Bullring’
The revamped Bullring’s first event will be Formula Drift Sept. 24-26 in the series’ first trip to Las Vegas since 2012. The track will also host the Open Wheel Showdown Nov. 5-7.
In addition to local racing for the next generation of racers and weekend warriors, and events for the CARS Tour Series West, LVMS senior vice president and general manager Patrick Lindsey said he sees a future for The Bullring that goes beyond racing.
“We’re really excited to have those renovations done so we can start a whole new chapter here and hopefully, it’d be more than just motor sports,” Lindsey said. “We want to bring new events out to The Bullring, concerts, festivals, new events, but this was the first step to get this done, to get the paving done to show off the capability of what this could be.
“There is a vision for The Bullring and right now, we are definitely tracking towards that.”
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
