Interstate's involvement in racing as it is today began in 1983 with the Interstate Batteries Great American Race. In 2007 we celebrate 25 years of involvement with this adventure that features about 100 antique, vintage and classic cars in a time-speed endurance rally across the country. The route changes each year, but usually spans the United States from coast-to-cast, visiting both small towns and big cities.

As 1990 approached, we moved into a different type of racing with Stanley Smith in the All-American Challenge Series. This was short-track, low-cost racing to test the interest level with Interstate distributors and dealers. We not only participated in the Southeastern and Mid-Central parts of the country, but also took part in a special tour, visiting tracks up and down the West Coast to expose Western distributors and dealers to Interstate Batteries racing. The following year Stanley moved up to the Busch series and qualified for a couple of Winston Cup events.

During 1992, Interstate Batteries teamed up with Joe Gibbs, coach of the Washington Redskins, to be the title sponsor of his new NASCAR Winston Cup team. Our first race was the Daytona 500, with driver Dale Jarrett behind the wheel. As a new team, we steadily improved throughout the season and went on to a second-place finish at Bristol and third-place at the July Daytona race, ending the season 19th in point standings.

With the newly formed Joe Gibbs Racing team and Dale Jarrett driving the No. 18 Lumina, we scored our first Winston Cup victory in the 1993 Daytona 500! While we didn't win another race that year, we had 18 top-10 finishes and 13 top-fives, ending up fourth in points that year.

Also during this year, Interstate Batteries charged onto the scene of Indy car racing at the historical Indianapolis 500 with driver Jeff Andretti and the Jack Pagan Racing team. The excitement of our first Indy 500 led to the 1994 sponsorship of another Pagan racer – Roberto Guererro, the former Indianapolis speed record holder.

In 1995, the Interstate-Joe Gibbs Racing team saw major changes. Bobby Labonte, a rising star on the NASCAR circuit, stepped into the driver's seat of the Interstate Batteries Monte Carlo. In his first season with the team, he made three trips to Victory Lane and finished with a career high 10th-place standing in the Winston Cup points!

This year additionally marked a premiere adventure across two borders starting in Ottawa, Canada, and ending in Mexico City for the one and only Interstate Batteries Great Race across North America.

Exciting times lay ahead in 1997 when Interstate Batteries sponsored the inaugural Winston Cup race at the brand-new Texas Motor Speedway. Almost 200,000 fans attended the Interstate Batteries 500, and nearly 11 million people tuned in to the race on CBS. We ended up finishing third, and raised brand awareness across the country.

Our involvement with Joe Gibbs eventually extended into the field of NHRA racing. We became associate sponsor of Top Fuel driver Cory McClenathan, Funny Car driver Cruz Pedregon and Pro Stock driver Jim Yates. During these times, the three teams combined won a total of nine rounds of competition.

As driver Bobby Labonte steadily climbed to sixth in 1998 and second in 1999, he rose to win the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup, making him the only driver to win both the NASCAR Busch and Winston Cup championships. Bobby finished the season with four wins, including the prestigious Brickyard 400 and the historic Southern 500. Bobby continued to drive the No. 18 Chevy until his last season with Interstate Batteries in 2005.

With beginning of the 2006 season, Phoenix native J.J. Yeley became just the third driver to pilot the vaunted No. 18 Interstate Batteries machine. While he didn't win any races, he did get named #1 in most spectacular wrecks for the year in USA Today.

During August 2007, Kyle Busch was signed to replace Yeley in the No. 18 beginning with the 2008 Sprint Cup season. At just 19 years old, Busch won his first pole, breaking the record previously held by Donald Thomas in 1952 and lays claim as the youngest Raybestos® Rookie of the Year in NASCAR Nextel Cup history.

In 2008, Interstate Batteries was named the Official Battery of Joe Gibbs Racing and began promoting all three JGR drivers as Team Interstate. Busch took the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota back to Victory Lane in Phoenix on April 12 when he won the Bashas' Supermarket 200 Nationwide race, and made racing history by winning a total of 21 races across all three series.

While many NASCAR observes didn't know what to expect from Kyle Busch, crew chief Steve Addinton, and the No. 18 team, it quickly became apparent that the combination would not only be successful, but that 2008 would serve as the breakout season many expected from the talented 23-year-old when he joined Interstate Batteries and the No. 18 team. The combination not only yielded eight Sprint Cup wins, 17 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes, but also catapulted Busch into a position as one of the top drivers in NASCAR's premier series. While the 2009 marked Busch's fifth full year competing in Sprint Cup and his second with JGR, his rise from aspiring young racer to the youngest winner in Sprint Cup history took just eight years.

Interstate Batteries is revved up for another action-packed year with Joe Gibbs Racing as Kyle Busch takes the wheel of the No. 18 Toyota Camry under the watchful eye of new crew chief Dave Rogers.

Prior to the final three Sprint Cup races of 2009 where Busch and Rogers worked together, the two are already familiar with each other as the talented 24-year-old Busch piloted the No. 20 JGR Toyota with Rogers as crew chief for three races in the 2008 Nationwide Series. In those races, these combined forces led 300 of the possible 503 laps and scored their first win together at Mexico City.

In 2009, Busch earned his first Nationwide Series championship, his first title in any of NASCAR's top-three division, with a total of 5,682 points scored – the most ever by a Nationwide Series competitor. The 2009 season also saw 20 wins for Busch among NASCAR's top-three series, and as of January 2010, he holds 62 wins among the top three divisions.