August 13, 2008
By Loren Dorrell
“Nothing succeeds like success”.
I don’t know who came up with that quote, but after watching Sunday’s Cup race at Watkins Glen, I’d like to submit it as the new motto for Kyle Busch and his team. Not just because of the eight victories, or the way he’s dominated the season, but also because of the reception he got from the stands after he won yesterday.
When Kyle nosed his Camry up against the wall and started his burn-out, I braced myself for the avalanche of boos I was certain would follow his now familiar bow. Instead, as clouds of tire smoke began to rise up off of the asphalt, a remarkable thing happened: the fans were cheering. For Kyle Busch. The man they’d been booing and tossing empties at for most of the year. And when he climbed up onto the roof of his car and bowed, the cheers just got louder. No boos, no raspberries; at least none that I could hear over the ovation Kyle was getting, and not one single bottle or can came over the fence.
For a moment or two I was in a mild state of shock. It certainly wasn’t the reaction I’d gotten used to hearing, and – to steal a line from “The King and I” – it was a puzzlement.
Were the fans in the north-east so much more gracious than the rest of the country? Had Joe Gibbs and TRD packed the seats behind the flag stand with ringers? Was there a major disturbance in the Force? Or were the fans finally beginning to appreciate his talent and ability?
For most of this season, Kyle Busch has been the driver NASCAR fans have loved to hate. When he spoke his mind, he was labeled cocky and arrogant. When his aggressive, bump and rub style caused wrecks, he was either a dirty driver or a no-talent, lousy one; depending on who he wrecked. But even worse, he was winning when the stars and fan favorites weren’t, and he was doing it in a – gasp – Toyota! Which, I suspect, was part of the reason he got booed so much; the very real prospect that a “foreign” car just might win the Sprint Cup.
The more he won, the more he got booed; the more he got booed, the better he ran, racking up seven wins no matter how the fans felt. But over the last few races, I had begun to notice that the boos and cat-calls were dwindling both in quantity and intensity, and then were almost absent after Busch’s win at the Glen. Maybe I’m an optimist, but I think the fans have finally accepted Kyle Busch as a true superstar of his sport, and are finally giving him the respect he has proven he deserves. But if there are still some Busch-bashers out there who have short memories, I can think of at least two examples of drivers that shared the same sort of reaction Kyle has gotten this year, and for much the same reason.
Back in the day, when Richard Petty was the King of NASCAR and arguably the sport’s biggest and most popular star, a young upstart named Dale Earnhardt came along and challenged King Richard’s supremacy. Dale was considered brash and cocky; his style of driving and his single-minded will to win made him a lot of enemies in the stands. When Earnhardt beat Petty, or Allison, or Pearson or anyone else in NASCAR’s pantheon, he was widely and loudly booed. When he dominated a season like Busch has done this year, the boos got louder and louder with each victory.
For a while, Earnhardt was the one everybody hated to see win, because he seemed to do it so often. Sound familiar? It took Earnhardt a couple of seasons and a championship or two, but he eventually became one of NASCAR’s most popular drivers; easily the equal of any of the best drivers in the sport’s sixty year history.
In the mid-1980’s Darrell Waltrip incurred the wrath of the fans when he dared to challenge both the King and the Intimidator. He too was considered mouthy and arrogant, so much so that he was nicknamed “Jaws”.
DW pushed and shoved people out of his way a lot like Earnhardt did; won a lot of races and had a lot fans seething over it. Waltrip shrugged it off and kept winning, which made the fans even angrier. Success is hard to argue with, and with each victory he proved just how good a race car driver he really was; before long the boos turned into cheers as he won the respect of both the fans and his peers.
Today, Darrell Waltrip is one of the sport’s most popular and respected champions as well as one of its greatest personalities; it’s hard to believe that early on in his career he was the number one driver that the fans most loved to hate.
So what’s my point?
When all is said and done, once the emotions have had time to settle, I think NASCAR fans are starting to realize that Kyle is the “real deal”; that his success on the track isn’t the result of some sort of voodoo but have come because he’s a terrific driver with enormous talent who deserves every bit of respect they can muster.
While comparing him to Dale Earnhardt or Darrell Waltrip may be hard for some fans to swallow, you don’t have to look too deep to see the parallels between their early success’ on the track and the fan reaction that followed. My guess is that Kyle will hear more cheers as the season rolls along because NASCAR fans have a long history of putting aside their differences and showing their respect – however grudgingly – for a great driver. And like it or not, for this season at least, Kyle Busch may very well be the best there is.
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 Loren Dorrell at 
