June 26, 2008
By Brian Watkins
Brian Watkins
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As disappointed as I am not be able to watch Kyle Busch run all three series each weekend, I would rather watch him win.
A few weeks back I made a “Tortoise and the Hare” analogy between Kyle Busch (playing the part of the rabbit) and Earnhardt and Burton (both being turtles respectively).
I find it very unlikely that my column had anything to do with Kyle’s choice to forgo chasing the Nationwide or Craftsman series championships and instead focus on the Sprint Cup series, but I’m thrilled just the same. We will never know for sure if Shrubby was “off” for the past few weeks due to his busy schedule or not, but one thing’s for certain: he seems to be back to his winning ways.
Have you noticed that he seems to be maturing a bit as the season rolls on? I’m not saying he needs to -- the kid is only 23 -- but it’s nice to see that he’s taken the season thus far in stride and hasn’t had too many episodes recently.
Though the season isn’t quite half over, I took a few minutes to compare Kyle’s success this season to seasons past. The interesting thing is that early season success does not always mean anything.
At this point in the 1998 season, Jeff Gordon had only three wins. He went on however to chalk up 13, grabbing the championship and tying Mr. Petty’s “modern-era” record for the most single season wins in the final race of the season at Atlanta.
(It should be noted that the term “modern-era” is NASCAR’s, not mine. In the pre-modern-era, Petty won as many as 27 races in a single season)
Using just that example, one would think that Kyle Busch, coming off the track at Infineon with win number 5 would be a shoo-in for the record books. Add to that nice uneven number the fact that only one other driver in the past 10 years has pulled off five wins this early in the season and you would think Rowdy was destined to be champion.
The problem with that logic is that while Gordon’s three early season wins did pan out to 13 in the end, Greg Biffle, the only other driver in the past decade to take the checkers 5 times in 16 races, ended the 2005 season with a whopping six wins -- and he didn’t get number six until the final race at Homestead.
In NASCAR as in life, a good start does not guarantee a smooth finish and starting at the back of the pack does not mean you have to stay there. We’ve got about 8500 miles of Cup racing left this season and as much as I’d like to think Kyle can bring in 10 more wins, I’ll keep my money off the table for now.
NO SPRINT KICK BACKS
I received a number of e-mails last week commenting on my MIS column. As always, some were kind, some were rude and some were unintelligible. A few however frustrated me a bit -- these were the one’s that accused me of getting kick backs from Sprint for promoting FanView in my column.
I wrote about FanView because it was part of my racing experience- The same way I would have written about concession hot dogs if I’d have been crazy enough to spend $5 on one. I’m glad people are reading my columns -- I just wish some of them would stop reading so much into them.
HAMLIN’S REALITY CHECK
I was reading a piece by Boston Globe columnist Michael Vega earlier this week. I was drawn by the headline that told us NASCAR drivers are feeling the pinch at the pump when they are off the track.
Before I even started reading the body of the story, I knew that no NASCAR driver was seriously going to complain about paying $80 or $100 to fill up his vehicle. How could they? Joey Logano just pulled in more money finishing second at the Milwaukee Nationwide event than many race fans make in a year and we are to believe that they “feel” it at the pump as we do? If they feel it like we do, they need to get a better financial team.
I’m not begrudging any of the drivers their salary. They make a good living doing what they love and there isn’t an honest person out there that could say they wouldn’t take a big payday if they earned it.
My issue was with what Denny Hamlin said in story when he was asked if he felt it at the pump. His reply? "I really do, believe it or not… It's tough when you have a normal vehicle and it takes $85 to fill it up where it used to take about $26.”
I’m sorry Denny, but I don’t feel your pain, especially when you bring in over $200k for a single day at work. Of all the people suffering with high gas prices in this country, a professional athlete is not in a position to complain.
A few paragraphs down in the same column Carl Edwards shows that he is well aware that the price of gas is not much of an issue for him at this point. After reflecting on his younger years when he had to worry about gas while running back and forth between odd jobs, Edwards shows that he is well aware of his new reality.
“Just like anyone, I filled up my truck this morning and the pump stopped at $75 and the tank is half-full… So I'm very fortunate right now that I have a very good job and I get paid a lot of money and it's the greatest thing in the world.”
Well said.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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