Auugust 3, 2009
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
|
Kyle Busch started the season in top form. He won two of the first five Cup races of the season; he’s won in Nationwide and the Truck Series. Now all of a sudden, the wheels have come off. He has dropped to fourteenth in points and is in danger of not making the Chase.
When he was riding high and winning races, he enjoyed taking shots at the driver that replaced him at Hendrick Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr. After his unsuccessful Pete Townshend impersonation when he tried to destroy the trophy guitar he won for winning the Nationwide race at Nashville, he took a shot at Earnhardt’s fans. And it wasn’t the only verbal shot he’s taken at Earnhardt.
When Tony Eury Jr. was replaced by Lance McGrew as crew chief on the 88 team, Busch used the opportunity to imply that the problem with the 88 team wasn’t the crew chief, but the driver.
“It's never Junior; it's always the crew chief… and if Junior doesn't run well, then he [McGrew] is going to be the 'problem' again,” Busch was quoted as saying in an Ed Hinton article for espn.com.
Fans and critics of Busch have always given him credit for being enormously talented when it comes to driving a racecar, but it seems he only runs well when he has a car that is good to begin with. Busch seems unable to communicate with his crew chief and work to improve his car during a race because he is always screaming over the radio about his car being “junk.” Maybe the problem with the 18 team isn’t the crew chief, but the driver.
Now, Busch finds himself in the midst of a good run of bad luck and 82 points out of 12th place after the Brickyard. After a few bad race results recently, he scolded his pit crew and refused to talk to the media after climbing from his car.
At Indianapolis, Busch tried a new tactic. He cleaned up his act, volunteered his time at Gleaner’s Food Bank, and admitted that maybe what he needed was a change in attitude.
“I need to become a better person in being able to pull our team together and lead these guys and, ultimately, lead them back into the Chase,” Busch said in a Raygan Swan article for nascar.com.
Still, a blown tire at Indy resulted in a 38th place finish and dropped him four spots in the points. Earnhardt already finds himself too far out to make it back into the Chase, and with another poor finish, Busch may find himself joining Earnhardt, his favorite driver to take swipes at when he’s running well.
However, 82 points in not impossible to make up with in the time remaining before the Chase; a win or two would certainly stand him in good stead. Maybe, Busch has indeed turned over a new leaf. He answered questions from the media after finishing poorly at Indianapolis, but his new found “good guy” image may have come too late to get him back into the Chase. Not that his on or off the track attitude would make any difference in how he finishes races anyway.
If you would like to learn more about Matthew, please check out his web site at matthew-pizzolato.com.
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 Matthew Pizzolato at ..