Brian Ickler cut his racing teeth competing in off-road racing machines on desert courses in California, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico before transitioning to stock cars and, ultimately, NASCAR.
He moved from California to North Carolina in 2007 to pursue a career in the big leagues. An instrumental relationship formed with Kyle Busch around this time as a result of Ickler's friendship with KBM Late Model driver Alex Haase, against whom Ickler competed in the NASCAR Camping World West Series in 2007. Haase, a longtime friend of Busch's from Las Vegas, moved to North Carolina to drive for KBM's Late Model team about the same time Ickler loaded up the family trailer and settled in the same area in hopes of launching his own stock car team.
Driving his own Ickler Motorsports equipment, Ickler turned heads in the East Series in 2008 by winning three times, earning two pole positions in track-record time, and bringing home a top-10 finish in the season-ending points. He returned for a limited East Series run in 2009, winning once in three outings and finishing second to Busch at Iowa.
Ickler also took his team to the ARCA RE/MAX Series for a limited time in 2009, where he scored four top-five finishes in six races and put his car on the pole at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta and Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet.
With the help of Busch, Ickler was introduced to Billy Ballew and eventually drove 11 races for the team in 2009. He made the most of his opportunity, earning the pole position en route to a third-place finish at Michigan International Speedway and adding another top-five result in his very first outing at Kansas Speedway.
Busch also opened the door for Ickler's opportunity to drive Nationwide Series events at Iowa Speedway in Newton and Memphis Motorsports Park in the No. 32 Braun Racing Toyota in 2009.
In 2010, Ickler became part of the first-year NASCAR Camping World Series Truck Series operation at Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2010 partnering in a truck with team owner Kyle Busch.
But early into that season, Jack Roush nabbed the young driver for his driver development program, giving him a testing slot in NASCAR Nationwide Series COT testing in Daytona and a team debut at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.
