Kyle Busch continues to win big

By Mike Mulhern
Media General News Service
Published: May 12, 2008

DARLINGTON, S.C. - Six straight weeks now, and six big NASCAR wins for Kyle Busch, and he certainly wins these things with quite a flair.
But for Busch, now just turned 23, it’s not just about the wins he’s piling up, or the style of showmanship he’s offering the crowds, it’s really about the NASCAR championship battle he’s waging, now halfway through the race to the playoff chase.
Considering Busch’s Sprint Cup victories this season - Atlanta, Talladega and here Saturday night, all 500 mile races, all under rather excruciating circumstances - and considering his Nationwide wins - at Texas, Phoenix and Mexico City, over three straight weeks - and considering his Truck tour wins - at California and Atlanta - and then also consider he could easily have opened the NASCAR season with a win in the Daytona 500 too, its it’s been a breathless romp.
That’s eight major wins on seven different types of tracks.
The only weak links so far in his armor, the Bristol and Martinsville short tracks; and his short-track performances at Phoenix and Richmond would appear to show he’s got good stuff for that part of the tour, too. That, plus teammate Denny Hamlin’s Martinsville win.
About the only question now is Busch so hot that he’s front-loaded the stock car racing season and may burn out.
Remember Jimmie Johnson and his famous August crash, or Dale Earnhardt Sr. and his famous summer slump.
Just keeping up with the grind of the 10-month tour is hard enough, much less maintaining such a sizzling pace.
What’s happening at the moment, though, is quite the opposite. Kyle Busch is demoralizing much of the competition.
Anyone who might have had questions about those Toyota engines and engineering and aerodynamic game plans, well, crumple them up and throw them away.
And those riled up fans still miffed at Busch’s tussle with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Richmond, well, Busch is letting all that stuff just roll right off his back, in classic Dale Sr. style: Give them that big grin and keep on walking.
What may be even more worrisome than Busch’s hot streak is that his teammates, Tony Stewart and Hamlin, could just as easily start making these deals 1-2-3s. Look at how dominant Hamlin was at Richmond, and Stewart has been hot too, though he’s still winless.
Just like Dale Sr., Kyle Busch seems to be thriving on the attention and the heat: “We just need to keep that bull’s-eye on us. Guys are looking at us and worrying about us. We’re the target they’re shooting for.”
And Busch is realistic enough to realize that Earnhardt and Carl Edwards are going to be some of his toughest completion in the coming two weeks at Concord, beginning with this week’s annual All-Star affair.
“We’re on top of the game for right now,” Busch said. “But Carl is going to be right with us next weekend. And there were a lot of cars that tested well at Charlotte.”
It was almost funny early Saturday night listening to Busch on the radio to crew chief Steve Addington (who, after a couple dry seasons, is loving every bit of this, beer cans, insults and all), Busch complaining that his car was “pathetic.”
At the time Busch was not only leading the race but pulling away from the field.
It’s probably good for the fans that Busch’s Toyota wasn’t in tip-top shape.
“It just doesn’t turn, it doesn’t want to do what it needs to do here,” Busch said. Of course going into one of these tight 1950s corners at 200 mph and it’s a wonder anyone came out the other side.
“This place became aero-tight - one of those aero-sensitive tracks, because there is only one lane you can run around this place that is the fast way around, and any time you want to get by somebody, you just have to save your stuff and try to maneuver past them somehow,” Busch added.
And, yes, with a straight face.
Darlington, aero-sensitive Saturday night. Uh, Kyle, you might want to check the right side of your car and see just how aerodynamic that side looks in yaw.
Well, maybe it was aero-sensitive. At 200 mph it ought to be. But then give Busch credit for manhandling his machine.
But, really, this was the key Saturday night and this is Busch’s real talent at the moment: “You have to be out of control ... and I was pretty much out of control, trying to hold onto the thing.
“How many times did I hit the wall? I don’t know. One, two, three, four ... probably five or six.
“After we ran about 15 or 20 laps (into a 75-lap run), the rest of the guys fell off so much, we could just keep ticking along and keep going.”
Of course running fast and out of control is Greg Biffle’s forte, too, and he was about the only guy who could match Busch. Unfortunately Biffle had mechanical problems and was sidelined, finishing 39th.
Like most NASCAR racers, when they get on a run like Busch is on, there is something a bit mystical about it. “To win here, at a place that’s so hard - whether it’s old asphalt or new asphalt, the regular car or the new car, it’s just unbelievable the way this race goes about, and the way things happened,” Busch conceded.
Busc had to rally from a lap down after a lug-nut penalty by NASCAR, a penalty that might have doomed a lesser team.
And then, after the win, Busch is becoming renowned for his celebratory burnouts. Not just a good ol’ smoky burnout, but a slick exit out the driver’s window to a pose atop the car, with all that thick Goodyear smoke enveloping him.
“A good burnout ... then I can’t get out of the car fast enough, man,” Busch said with a grin. “I need to work on that.
“I’d get out of there, then I’m up on top, I appear, then I do a bow: ‘Thank you very much ... have a nice day’.
“I’m trying to get more smoke built up before I get out. I’m working on it.”
It really is a quite a work of showmanship.
Busch just turned 23 and the year he was born, 1985, was that brilliant 11-win season for Bill Elliott: Daytona, Atlanta, Darlington, Talladega, Dover.
Busch may be on track for just such a successful season, too.
“This racetrack - don’t get me wrong, I don’t know all the history and heritage - but I know there’s a lot to it,” Busch said of NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway.
“Watching Carl Edwards with David Pearson, having the fun day he had (in a pre-race promotion two weeks ago), then watching some of the highlights of races here,” Busch said. “It’s fun to watch those and see what the track was like back in the heyday.
“But we’re running around here so fast now it’s confusing.”
The race was rather confusing, both inside the car and out.
But the key, as it appears to be this season, is to keep an eye on Kyle Busch. That’s the center of the hurricane.
But Busch was bouncing off the walls so hard it was difficult to believe he would even finish, much less win.
“To be honest with you, a year ago or two (if faced with so many wall-bangers) I probably would have just thrown my hands up and wrecked the thing,” Busch said. “But I’m getting smarter - not much, but just that much smarter to where I know we’ve got still a long race.
“Now if all that would have happened with 30 laps to go, I would have been junk, I would have probably folded in half.
“Fortunately there was still a long enough ways to go. Like two weeks ago at Talladega, where we had the same thing: a pit stop miscue, I didn’t get in my box, and had to drive through, and come back around. But there were still enough laps to go where we could rebound from it.
“So here, knowing there was enough time to rebound, I just laid back, stayed cool, tried to maneuver through traffic and do the best I could.
“I was able to get through about half the guys (in the field). Then my guys had another awesome pit stop, to get me a few more.
“And on that last stop, they got me out first.”
However that pit stop penalty for a missing lug nut could have cost Busch a shot at the win, and crew chief Steve Addington wasn’t happy:
“We’re looking to see if there’s something bad on the tube of glue or what. It’s the first time it’s happened all year.
“The first couple of stops, I didn’t even know it was happening. They never said anything, and they didn’t miss a beat.
“Then it (a lug nut or two) started falling off ... and they just left it, because they thought they could get away with it (without NASCAR noticing). That’s when it was brought to my attention.
“I was pretty upset about it - thinking Kyle’s probably thinking we have lost this whole deal, our pit crew’s falling apart....
“There was an issue, they’re looking into it, we’ll get it resolved.”
J. D. Gibbs, who has spent the last 10 years or so dealing with Stewart’s own emotional crises, is keeping cool about Busch’s controversies: “A guy comes along, and when he starts to do well, there’s an issue,” Gibbs said, with a nod toward men like Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Darrell Waltrip. “Over time, as the guys get older, people start to appreciate what they’re doing on the track.
“And Kyle is learning, too.”
After all Busch has three full NASCAR seasons under his belt.
“This is a lot of attention he hasn’t had,” Gibbs said. “As he learns and grows with that, we’ll be in good shape.
“That’s just a matter of time.”
And Busch is - though this may be a little hard to see at times - is learning humility: “You’ve got to stay humble in this sport. Anything can come out and bite you at any time ... especially here at Darlington.
“And it tried about five times. Fortunately for me I just didn’t hit hard enough, and I was still able to win the thing.
“And you look at racers here from the past.... Jeff Gordon, when he won his Million deal ... Jeff Burton when he won here in the rain. There’s a lot of heritage and history to this deal.”
Kyle Busch added his own chapter Saturday night. And it probably won’t be his last here.