CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Success and fame came quickly for Kurt Busch.
In hindsight, maybe a little too fast for the driver known as “The Outlaw.”
Busch won his first dwarf car race at age 15 in a small Nevada town, setting him on a meteoric rise. He went on to win the Cup Series championship just 11 years later in 2004 and finished his 23-year professional career with 43 victories across NASCAR's three national series before a concussion ended his time behind the wheel in 2023.
On Friday night, the 47-year-old Busch will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame along with fellow drivers Harry Gant and Ray Hendrick, culminating a drama-filled career that had more twists and turns and momentum changes than your typical Sunday stock car race.
There were run-ins with NASCAR. Clashes with owners and crew members of his own race teams. Altercations with other drivers and reporters. Suspensions and firings became synonymous with the Busch name.
There were highly-publicized relationship issues away from the track, too.
“There is definitely the knowledge and wisdom thing that youth doesn't have," Busch said with a laugh Thursday when asked if he would do things differently during an interview with The Associated Press. “And so if I could, I would have told my younger self to have more patience and to not get so animated or so excited when things went wrong.
“It was like I was on too high of highs and too low of lows,” Busch went on to say. “If I could have just mellowed it out a little, I think, that would have made for an easier path for me, so to speak.”
Getting to the Hall of Fame was not an easy journey for Busch, who burned his share of bridges and made plenty of enemies along the way, often bringing unnecessary negative attention upon himself because of his short temper.
In 2005, his tumultuous six-year stint with Roush Racing, one that included several on-track flare-ups, came to an end when he was suspended for the final two races of the season by the team after he was detained by police near the Phoenix track on suspicion of drunken driving for being uncooperative and belligerent with officers.
During a 2007 race at Dover for Team Penske, Busch recklessly clipped a crew member for Tony Stewart’s team on pit road and was parked by NASCAR for the remainder of the race.
His time with Penske ended in 2011 following a confrontation with a member of the media. One year later, racing's governing body suspended Busch for another incident in which he threatened another reporter following a race at Dover.
Busch was suspended again prior to the 2015 season by NASCAR after a judge said the former champion almost surely choked and beat a former girlfriend and there was a “substantial likelihood” of more domestic violence from him in the future.
Busch was never charged in the incident and later reinstated by NASCAR.
As Busch aged, he began to mellow some.
He drove his Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to his only Daytona 500 victory in 2017 and later helped lay the foundation for 23XI Racing run by Denny Hamlin and former NBA star Michael Jordan, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry and serving as a veteran leader for the team’s expansion to a two-car operation.
Busch said Thursday that his fast ascent from winning the second competitive race of his life in a dwarf car in Pahrump, Nevada as a teenager to racing in the Cup Series at age 22 — he bypassed what was then known as the Busch Series and went straight to the big leagues because of his talent — never afforded him the time to mature as a person.
He called his rise “uncharted territory” at the time.
“That journey, and how fast it went — that’s why I wasn’t ready to be a professional," Busch said.
Busch, who followed his father Tom into auto racing and paved the way for his highly successful younger brother Kyle, said he was raised with a burning desire to win.
And that never went away.
“My dad, when he raced, he went to the track and he was not there to make friends,” Busch said. “He wasn’t there for social hour. It was ‘We’re here for the trophy.’ So when you’re raised in that mentality, that’s the tenacity and that’s what pushed me.”
Busch doesn't look back on his tumultuous career with regret, though.
Despite the troubles, despite the ups and downs along his journey to the Hall, Busch said he “wouldn't change a thing.”
“It was my ride, and I have to be happy with it,” Busch said. "I am very complacent with how it all ended up.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
FILE - Former driver Kurt Busch is introduced to fans as an inductee to the 2026 Hall of Fame prior to a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Oct. 5, 2025, in Concord, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, File)
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Thousands of flights across the U.S. set to take off over the weekend were canceled as a monster storm started to wreak havoc Saturday across much of the country, knocking out power and snarling major roadways with dangerous ice.
Widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain threatened nearly 180 million people — more than half the U.S. population — in a path stretching from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England, the National Weather Service said Saturday night. It warned people to brace for a string of frigid days.
“The snow and the ice will be very, very slow to melt and won’t be going away anytime soon, and that’s going to hinder any recovery efforts,” said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
President Donald Trump had approved emergency declarations for at least a dozen states by Saturday, with more expected to come. The Federal Emergency Management Agency pre-positioned commodities, staff and search and rescue teams in numerous states, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
“We just ask that everyone would be smart – stay home if possible,” Noem said.
As crews in some southern states began working to restore downed power lines Saturday, officials in some eastern states issued final warnings to residents.
“We are expecting a storm the likes of which we haven’t seen in years," New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Saturday while announcing restrictions on commercial vehicle travel and a 35 mph (56 kph) speed limit on highways. She added: “It’s a good weekend to stay indoors.”
Forecasters say the damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival that of a hurricane.
About 140,000 power outages were reported in the path of the winter storm Saturday, including more than 58,000 in Louisiana about 50,000 in Texas, according to poweroutage.us.
In Shelby County, Texas, near the Louisiana border, ice weighed down on pine trees and caused branches to snap, downing power lines. About a third of the county's 16,000 electric customers lost power on Saturday.
“We have hundreds of trees down and a lot of limbs in the road,” Shelby County Commissioner Stevie Smith said from his pickup truck. “I’ve got my crew out clearing roads as fast as we can. It’s a lot to deal with right now.”
There were reports of vehicles hitting fallen trees and trees falling onto houses in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, where more than half of all electric customers lost power.
“We got limbs that are dragging the ground,” said Mark Pierce, a spokesperson for the local sheriff’s office. “These trees are just completely saturated with ice.”
More than 13,000 flights were canceled Saturday and Sunday across the U.S., according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Sunday's cancellations, which are still growing, already are the most on any single day since the coronavirus pandemic, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
All Saturday flights were canceled at Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City, and all Sunday morning flights also were called off, as officials aimed to restart service Sunday afternoon at Oklahoma’s biggest airport.
Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport, a major hub, saw more than 700 departing flights canceled on Saturday and nearly as many arriving flights called off. Disruptions were also piling up at airports in Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
By late Saturday afternoon, nearly all departing flights scheduled to leave Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Sunday had already been canceled.
Officials in Georgia advised people in the state’s northern regions to get off the roads by sundown Saturday and be prepared to stay put for at least 48 hours.
Will Lanxton, the senior state meteorologist, said Georgia could get “perhaps the biggest ice storm we have expected in more than a decade” followed by unusually cold temperatures.
“Ice is a whole different ballgame than snow,” Lanxton said. “Ice, you can’t do anything with. You can’t drive on it. It’s much more likely to bring down power lines and trees.”
Crews began treating highways with brine after midnight Saturday, with 1,800 workers on 12-hour shifts, Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry said.
“We’re going to do what we can to keep the ice from sticking to the roads,” McMurry said. “This is going to be a challenge.”
After earlier putting 500 National Guard members on standby, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Saturday that he was deploying 120 of them to northeast Georgia “to further strengthen our response in the hardest hit areas.”
After sweeping through the South, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping snow exceeding 1 foot (30 centimeters), the weather service predicted.
“Please, if you can avoid it, do not drive, do not travel, do not do anything that can potentially place you or your loved ones in danger,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Saturday. “Instead, I urge every New Yorker who can to put a warm sweater on, turn on the TV, watch ‘Mission Impossible’ for the 10th time, above all to stay inside.”
The Midwest saw windchills as low as minus 40 F (minus 40 C), meaning that frostbite could set in within 10 minutes. The minus 36 F (minus 38 C) reading in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, on Saturday morning was the coldest in almost 30 years.
In Minneapolis, the worst of an extreme cold wave was over, but protesters calling for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to leave Minnesota on Saturday still faced an outdoor temperature of minus 6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 21 Celsius).
Workers from The Orange Tent Project, a Chicago nonprofit that provides cold weather tents and other supplies to unhoused individuals throughout the city, went out to check on those who did not or could not seek shelter.
“Seeing the forecasted weather, I knew we had to come out and do this today,” CEO Morgan McLuckie said.
Churches moved Sunday services online, and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, decided to hold its Saturday night radio performance without fans. Mardi Gras parades in Louisiana were canceled or rescheduled.
School closings were already announced for Monday in numerous cities, including Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia and Memphis, Tennessee.
Some universities in the South canceled classes for Monday, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Mississippi’s main campus in Oxford.
Around the southeast, people used the cancellations to have some fun. On a hill outside the Capitol building in Nashville, adult sledders on green discs and inflatable pool animals giggled with joy as they slid in the snow.
Weather forecasters said the winter storm was unusual.
“I think there are two parts of this storm that make it unique. One is just a broad expanse of spatial coverage of this event ... You’ve got 2,000 miles of country that’s being impacted by the storm with snow, sleet, and freezing rain,” said Josh Weiss, a meteorologist at NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center. “The other part of this storm that’s really impressive is what’s going to happen right afterward. We’re looking at extreme cold, record cold.”
Associated Press writers Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Julie Walker in New York, David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, George Walker in Nashville and Laura Bargfeld in Chicago contributed to this report. Amy reported from Atlanta and Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.
Traffic moves west in the snow on I244 east of Yale Ave. Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026 in Tulsa, Okla. (Mike Simons /Tulsa World via AP)
The streets are ployed during a winter storm Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026 in Tulsa, Okla. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)
Drivers navigate icy and wet road conditions by the I35-I30 interchange Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Jacob Coleman skis across SkyDance Bridge over Interstate 40 during a snowstorm in Oklahoma City on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
A flight status screen shows canceled flights to the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area from the Salt Lake City International Airport amid a winter storm Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Sydney Schaefer)
Sea smoke rises from Casco Bay at sunrise on a 1-degree F. morning as a ferry boat makes its way to Portland, Maine, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Island commuters are bundled against the cold as they disembark from a ferry on a 1-degree F. morning, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Emma Nadeau, of North Yarmouth, Maine, photographs the pre-dawn scene overlooking Casco Bay on a 1-degree F. morning, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Emma Nadeau, of North Yarmouth, Maine, is bundled against the cold as she watches the sunrise on a 1-degree F. morning, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Ice crystals form inside a kitchen window in Lowville, New York, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)
Strong winds kick up snow in Lowville, New York, on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)
A person walks by a vehicle that was plowed in by snow in Grand Rapids, Mich. on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Joel Bissell/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)
Work crews stage with de-icing materials in their trucks ahead of expected inclement weather in Plano, Texas, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Doug Kunde watches as steam is seen over Lake Michigan as frigid temperatures for the day are not expected to reach zero degrees Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
People walk on an ice covered beach along the shore of Lake Michigan, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
