June 4, 2010
By Rebecca Gladden
In the past few weeks, NASCAR fans have been treated to two high-profile driver dust-ups involving three of the sport's marquee names - Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Jeff Burton. The driver in common is Busch, who was a pivotal player in both incidents.
In the first occurrence, Busch and Hamlin, teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing, had a run-in with less than ten laps to go in the All-Star Race, as Busch tried to pass Hamlin on the high side at Charlotte Motor Speedway. After they made contact, Busch hit the wall and was forced out of the race early. He finished 14th, while Hamlin finished fourth.
In the second event, which took place last week in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, it was Burton who cut a tire after trading paint with Busch as they went three-wide into turn one with 19 laps to go. Both were running near the front at the time, but Burton finished a lap down in 25th place, while Busch came in third.
Regardless of who you think was right or wrong in either incident, my commentary today is not as much about the racing events themselves as what happened afterwards.
In the Busch/Hamlin All-Star Race run-in, Kyle Busch took his disagreement directly to the No. 11 hauler, where he drove after the wreck to await his teammate. The two spent about 20 minutes behind closed doors, airing out their differences away from the spotlight's glare and the ever-present media microphones. When they were finished, Hamlin spoke calmly to reporters, emphasizing his common bond with Busch as a teammate and Cup competitor.
And frankly, it was disappointing.
After an uneventful (read boring) All-Star Race in which Jimmie Johnson led more than half the laps, the only real drama took place on Kyle Busch's radio after he hit the wall. "Somebody better keep me away from Denny Hamlin after this race!" he yelled. "I swear to God, I'm going to kill that [expletive]. His entire [expletive] fault! I had this race won! It was won!"
No doubt the ensuing conversation between Busch and Hamlin was just as … colorful. But we will never know, because we didn't hear from the drivers until after a cooling-off period, when emotions were subdued and the fire had fizzled.
It was a missed opportunity to give fans the one thing they long for: passion. Some would argue that it's been missing from the sport for a long time. Without it, racing runs the risk of becoming the very thing that critics claim it to be -- a bunch of fast cars going around in circles.
And no one understands that better than Jeff Burton. That's because Burton, racing in NASCAR for over 20 years, recognizes the critical role that raw emotion plays in the sport's appeal and popularity.
In a recent radio interview on the SpeedFreaks Motorsports Radio Show... www.speedfreaks.tv, Burton said:
"Honestly, the emotion of our sport is important for our sport. If we don't show the emotion of it, if we don't tell the fans how we feel, then that's not fair either … Years ago, we had a push where people wanted to say, okay, there's a cooling off period. After a driver gets in a wreck, there's x-amount of minutes before the media can get to the driver. That's a bunch of junk, man! If we could get to him as soon as he got out of the car getting in the ambulance, that's what we want. Because that's what the fans want to hear. They want to see it, they want to feel it, and it's what they deserve. It's honestly what separates us from the stick-and-ball sports -- the immediate access to the teams. That's what separates it and we have to take advantage of that. The heck with the cooling off period. Tell people what you think!"
When Burton felt wronged by Kyle Busch last weekend in Charlotte, he lived those words. He didn't wait for a cooling off period. He didn't head for his hauler for a private tête-à-tête with Busch. He didn't text message Busch during the week to make nice and smooth things over. He didn't shy away from the cameras or the microphones.
What Burton did was old school. He confronted Busch on pit road as soon as the two got out of their cars. An irate Burton repeatedly wagged his finger in Busch's face, admonishing the younger driver to use his head on the racetrack and threatening to punt him the next time Busch got in his way.
The after-effects were immediate and forceful. The confrontation became the talk of the NASCAR community, lighting up message boards and social media sites with interest and excitement. What happened on pit road overshadowed Kurt Busch's victory and just about everything else that happened the entire race weekend.
It's a simple formula, really. When drivers get fired up, fans get fired up.
It's time for more drivers to stoke the flames.
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