May 12, 2008
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
|
What a weekend of racing. The Lady in Black truly was black, thanks to new pavement, and she was vicious.
In both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series race, we had crashes involving favorites -- in the first two laps: Carl Edwards on Friday night and Tony Stewart on Saturday night.
Cars were hitting the wall on a regular basis. Kyle Petty, Kevin Harvick, Sam Hornish, and Casey Mears were just some of the drivers who lost their battles to the Lady. 24 cars hit the wall over the course of the Saturday night's race….and the white wall that surrounded Darlington, at the start of Saturday’s race, was black and white at the end.
Greg Biffle, who led 95 laps, ended up with his engine grenading with 120 laps to go.
The heat appeared to take its toll, as I heard Michael Waltrip call for three bottles of water, two bags of ice and two wet rags on one of his pit stops, and several drivers looked hot and tired during their post-race interviews. It wasn’t the best racing, but with the new pavement, you can’t expect to have the racing that you used to. It will take a year or two to get the surface worn in, but considering the fact you used to have to change tires every 10 laps on the old surface, getting nearly 60 laps in before pit stops on Saturday was a nice change.
In the end, Kyle Busch found a way to take on the lady, despite her trying to take him down a peg or two over the course of the night, and he ended up in Victory Lane.
One thing that I have found myself ruminating on lately is the attitude of Saturday night’s winner. I stayed out of it last weekend, even though I had the opportunity to fire off a question during post race on Saturday at Richmond as to what the difference between his run-in with Steven Wallace and the run-in with Dale Junior was -- and why he had different reactions to each even though to me, they seemed very similar. I sat and listened to him call Steven all kinds of inexperienced names on Friday, and then blame Junior for the crash on Saturday.
But, I refrained from saying anything because I thought it might have just been one of “those” weekends, and after taking a look at the replays, Kyle might change his mind about some of the events of the weekend.
All week, I heard nothing but calls and comments about the Kyle and Junior run-in. I believe Dave Moody said there had been something close to 45 hours of non-stop calls about the topic on Sirius between the various shows. Many agreed that Junior took the high ground in his comments post race last weekend, not getting angry or calling names, where as Kyle came into the media center and called Junior out for causing the crash and also mocked Junior's fans and said “Well, for some reason they are awfully confused, because they were giving me the number 1 sign the last 10 laps of the race and I was in second place still. So I don’t know whether that’s too many Dale Junior Budweisers or they are amped up or what. For me there is nothing you can say, absolutely nothing. If I apologize up and down, even though it may or may not be my fault, it would not make a difference. Dale got wrecked, he should have had a win tonight, quote unquote. (He was using air quotes and a smirk). But I'll say it again, it's just unfortunate for him because he didn't get a win, and for me now because I've got to put up with it.”
Now, I am all for letting a driver speak his mind. One of my favorite drivers is Tony Stewart, who has never had a problem saying what is on his mind. However, to me there is speaking your mind, and there is just being obnoxious.
Putting last week behind us, let’s move ahead to this weekend. Kyle was running strong all evening on Friday night in the Nationwide race, and looked like a good pick to win. Until he came up on Brad Keselowski, driver of the 88 Navy car. Brad was a lap down when Kyle attempted to pass him, and failed. It looked like a racin’ deal -- Kyle went low, got loose, and hit the wall. But it wasn’t a racin’ deal to Kyle, and it seemed like he was going to repeat his ability to open mouth and piss people off.
“I’m just sorry for the whole No. 32 Beringer team because this is the second car I’ve wrecked of theirs, in two races. I can say and take the blame, but I can’t on this one. We’ve got a lap car that’s out there that’s racing with us leaders showing disrespect. Next time I’m a lap down and I’ve got damage I’m going to race him like an SOB and wreck him, too."
A replay showed that Brad didn’t actually come down on Kyle, but Kyle came up from the apron and got loose.
Now, flash back a week. Kyle’s post race comments about his run-in with Wallace went along these lines:
"He might have got a better run off of turn two, but when you get a better run off of somebody, you pull low and you pass. You don’t drive into the back of them and try to spin them out on the straightaway. He knew I was going to wreck him in turn three and he moved up out of the way and he didn’t get dumped."
So, Kyle did exactly what he claimed you should do the week before, and ended up in the wall. Yet somehow, it was Brad’s fault.
Kyle Busch is a very, very talented young man. He will undoubtedly some day be a Sprint Cup champion. That said he has a LOT of growing up to do, despite thinking himself a “man” compared to Steven Wallace’s “boy”. He speaks his mind, and some folks love him for it. However, there is speaking your mind, and speaking too much. And three times in the last week, he has gone beyond speaking to the realm of obnoxious, not to mention just a tad hypocritical. Three instances of Kyle tangling with another car, and not only did he not see any of them as his fault, he blamed, and mocked, the other driver for their role in the dust up.
Someone said this past week that Kyle just needed to stop speaking -- about 10 seconds before he actually did. He starts off by talking about his team and his car…and then fires shots off about the other team involved in whatever incident it is.
If you watch other drivers involved in incidents over the last two weeks, most have shouldered at least part, if not all of the blame. They talk about their cars, their teams, and then admit there might have been something they could have done to avoid whatever the incident was.
Not Kyle. His ran a great race, and he showed his abilities by taking a car that hit the wall at least a half dozen times, lost a lug nut and had to go to the back of the pack, lost the brakes, and he took it to Victory lane. Despite that, he spent a good part of the first half of the race belittling his crew. Darrell Waltrip commented in the closing laps “I just hope when he gets out of the car tonight, he has something nice to say.”
How sad is it that you need to even consider that?
He did come out of the car and thank the crew, especially his crew chief and spotter, and thanked the lapped cars for giving him plenty of room. Best of all...he was nice, even if he did get a dig in at the fans, asking them to continue “making their noise”
I felt bad for Kyle’s mom as they, along with brother Kurt, made their way across the introduction stage to resounding boo’s. Kyle, not helping the situation, egged the fans on by pretending to wipe tears from his cheeks as he made his way around the track after introductions.
I don’t think Kyle needs to stop speaking his mind, however I do think he needs to consider what he says and does a little more before doing it. There is something about the confidence of knowing you are good, however it helps to be humble as well. And while it was Dale Earnhardt Sr. who commented that he didn’t mind the fan’s booing him because at least they were responding to him, even Earnhardt knew a little humility went a long way, and knew when he was wrong, and it helped to take at least some of the blame.
I don’t know what it will take for Kyle to find the humility. It took his brother a pop in the face from Jimmy Spencer to find his. While I don’t see anyone taking a physical swing at Kyle, something has to happen to turn that light on. If not, his attitude might overshadow his talent, and with talent like his, that would be a shame.
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.
You can contact Kim at..