May 31, 2010
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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Less than a month ago, people were talking about some "new" Kyle Busch. Apparently, this new driver had taken over the old one and actually showed some maturity and patience for a while.
Earlier this month at Richmond, Busch ran strong for most of the race, but faded toward the end. Instead of having a meltdown, he persevered and took advantage of a late restart to capture his 17th career victory.
This success led to talk of a new Kyle having showed up, talk that Busch himself contributed to after the Richmond race.
"The old Kyle, he would have folded," Busch was quoted as saying in a USA Today article by Gary Graves. "The new one, he stuck in there. He dug hard. He kept going."
Yet, if a new Kyle had truly appeared, where was this driver last weekend at the Sprint Cup All-Star Race?
From all appearances, there are two Kyle Busch's, the happy-go-lucky race winner and the sore loser, who a lot of fans love to hate. And there always has been, so this "new" Kyle phenomenon should come as no surprise.
The old Kyle returned with a vengeance and made up for lost time last weekend at Charlotte when his teammate, Denny Hamlin, blocked him on the track as
the No. 18 car maneuvered for the win, a move that sent Busch into the wall and ultimately led to him not finishing the race.
Needless to say, Busch was infuriated, going as far as threatening to kill Hamlin over the radio. He parked his car in front of the No. 11 hauler and waited until the end of the race for his teammate to show up. His anger stemmed from the fact that he didn't expect such a move from his teammate.
"It surprised me, and I wouldn't have expected my teammate to race me that way," Busch was later quoted as saying in a David Caraviello article for nascar.com. "But he's the leader, he's got the race track, and now I understand that."
Perhaps what Busch should understand is that when there are a million dollars on the line, all bets are off. There is no such thing as a teammate in the
All-Star Race.
For his part, Denny Hamlin was unrepentant. And the general consensus among the other drivers in the garage is that Hamlin did nothing wrong.
"Kyle brings this stuff up himself, and he gets mad at the media for asking him questions about his blow-ups and stuff, but he does it to himself," Hamlin said in the Caraviello article. "I don't want to be part of it. Any drama that he wants to create or anything is on him. Anything he says on the radio is on him. All I'm going to say, and I'm going to be done with it, each year I think Kyle's going to grow out of it, and he just doesn't. Until he puts it all together, that's when he'll become a champion. Right now he just doesn't have himself all together."
There is no question that Busch is an incredibly talented racecar driver and his determination and will to win are second to none.
Is Busch capable of winning a Championship at NASCAR's highest level? Of course, but then so are a lot of other drivers in the garage.
Yet, the real question is, will Kyle Busch ever win a Championship?
Perhaps Denny Hamlin said it best.
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