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 Nascar.com Right or Wrong

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Kyle18Busch
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Kyle18Busch


Number of posts : 292
Registration date : 2008-04-23

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PostSubject: Nascar.com Right or Wrong   Nascar.com Right or Wrong I_icon_minitimeMon 05 May 2008, 6:15 pm

Right or wrong, it's good to have bad boy Busch here
Busch's aggressiveness reminiscent of Junior's father

If it's true that every sport needs a bad guy, real or perceived, then things are really looking up in the Sprint Cup Series.

Tony Stewart appears to be turning nice. Jeff Gordon no longer gets booed with the same gusto as in the past. Other former bad boys, such as Darrell Waltrip, have long since retired.

A void was forming.

In a split second at Richmond International Raceway last Saturday night, Kyle Busch filled it. He went from being the Happy Gilmore of Sprint Cup racing to something far more sinister -- at least in the angry eyes of the legions of fans of the most popular driver on the Cup circuit. Racing for the lead with two laps remaining in the scheduled 400-lap event, Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. bumped and banged until Busch eventually turned Earnhardt around and sent Earnhardt's chances of ending a 71-race winless streak spinning into oblivion.

Thousands upon thousands of Earnhardt fans in attendance howled in protest. Others no doubt unwisely hurled 12-ounce projectiles at their television sets. Kyle Busch's name was widely cursed throughout this land.

Roughly 36 hours later, they were both on hand for Cup testing at Lowe's Motor Speedway, just outside Charlotte. As a joke -- or at least it was taken as a joke -- Humpy Wheeler, president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway, sent a security detail of three into the media center when Busch was scheduled to answer questions about the incident.

Three? Saturday night it looked like 30 might be a better number to ensure Busch's safety.
Meanwhile, about 30 minutes earlier, Earnhardt broke his silence on the matter and said a few words after his handlers earlier had insisted that he would not speak about it until Thursday evening at Darlington Raceway, where the series heads next. It seemed Earnhardt wanted to talk about it Monday because he wanted to diffuse the situation. As often is the case with Earnhardt on the track and off, he also sought the high road.

"It was just hard racing," Earnhardt said. "Kyle has his style of driving. Maybe I went at it as hard as he did; I don't know what I would have done. I took him out at Kansas during the Chase [last year], and that's really why I wouldn't be any more vocal or angry about it -- because I would have been hypocritical about it, in that sense.

"We've both been on each side of it now between the two of us, and hopefully once him and I have a chance to talk about it, we can come to some kind of understanding to where we don't ever have to deal with it again, where we just go out and race and try to race each other with a little more respect and have a little better outcome."

Kyle's side

Busch expected a rude reception when he made the walk to his motor home following the race at Richmond on Saturday night. He was surprised it "wasn't too bad." It could be that the fans just couldn't find him fast enough to make it a whole lot worse.

"Going back from the infield to the motor home, there wasn't anything. And then going from the motor home to the helipad, there were just a couple fans yelling derogatory comments and stuff like that," Busch said. "It's nothing new to me anyway. I'm used to it. I pretty much told them, 'Grow up; that's racing.'

"We're racing hard and I feel like there are a lot more worse cases in this world than someone getting spun out in a race."

Only this wasn't just someone. This was Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And not only was it Junior, but it was Junior as he was at last within fingertip reach of his first Cup victory in two years.

The fact is none of that should matter when analyzing this incident. Busch, the hottest driver in NASCAR this season and by virtue of his eventual second-place finish Saturday now the new Sprint Cup points leader, was trying to win another race. He may have made a mistake that proved costly to another driver trying to win as well, but there have been plenty of aggressive drivers in the past that likely would have done the same.

One of them was named Earnhardt. He didn't have Jr. tagged to the end of his name.

Generally remembered as beloved by all since his tragic passing during an accident at the end of the 2001 Daytona 500, Earnhardt once had his share of haters, too. Junior Johnson, the former driver and car owner, once became infuriated at Earnhardt for wrecking his driver, Darrell Waltrip, and swears even today that nothing was ever the same again for the two of them. Dale Inman, legendary crew chief for Richard Petty, got so incensed at Earnhardt over another incident that for a while afterward, he refused to speak to him.

Getting booed loudly and by large numbers, as Busch surely will this Saturday night at Darlington and even more so again later this month when the All-Star Race and Coca-Cola 600 are held at Lowe's Motor Speedway, is in many ways a sign of respect.
"It's nothing new to this sport," Busch said.

The replay

Earnhardt said he had looked at replays of the incident and he thinks he knows what happened. Then he said he wanted to put it behind him.

"It looks like he got loose underneath me and had to wreck his car, and got into the side of us," said Earnhardt, who remained third in the points standings during his first season of driving the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "It's unfortunate, but we'll try to go to Darlington and have a good run and try to rebound a little bit points-wise, maybe try to get a win there.

"The only thing I'm just upset with is not getting the points out of it that I should have been able to get. We've been working hard to stay consistent all year. I want to get as good a finish as we can with our car each week. I've been real proud of that, had a lot of pride in what we've been able to do this year in terms of being consistent, and that was just a little bit of a bruise on the stats that we've had this year. It won't show at the end of the year how good we really were on that particular weekend."

There are those who want Junior to be angrier, more upset. They want him to see the incident as more of an affront to his manhood than a "bruise on his stats." But that is not his nature.
It would be the nature, say, of Kyle Busch if the roles were reversed. But Junior is undoubtedly one of the good guys, the one most everyone loves to cheer.

Busch has become the guy many fans love to flip the bird. Congratulations. That honor once belonged to the then-upstart Jeff Gordon. It was bestowed on Gordon mainly because he was seen by Earnhardt fans as everything that the late Dale Earnhardt, Junior's father, was not.

Their "rivalry" flourished more in the fevered minds of misguided fans than it ever did on the track, although the two talented drivers did provide some memorable highlights. Saturday's incident certainly was akin to that.

Kyle said that he called Earnhardt and left him a voice-mail message Monday morning.
"I don't know what time he got here to get on the track [for testing], but hopefully we'll either see each other in the garage or he'll get back to me later -- maybe even tonight. It's Cinco de Mayo; maybe we'll go party it up a little bit," Busch said.

That not only isn't likely, but would not be wise. No doubt some Junior fan hell-bent on revenge would take to smashing a beer bottle over Busch's elongated head, claiming he was only trying to wipe the perpetual smirk from his face.

Then again, as bad as that might be for Busch, it would be great for NASCAR ticket sales and television ratings. That's why it's always good to have a bad boy in the house. It keeps life interesting.
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Kyle18Busch
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Kyle18Busch


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PostSubject: Re: Nascar.com Right or Wrong   Nascar.com Right or Wrong I_icon_minitimeMon 05 May 2008, 6:27 pm

OK drina....after reading that...I definately see what you like about jr. I loved that he reminded everyone of what he done to kyle last year at kansas in the chase. Everything he said was definately a class act. I don't think I will be letting jr fans get to me as much now...I no that sounds stupid but my perspective of jr has definately changed..........(no i'm still not going to root for him tho :P )...someone has to keep it on the 'bad boy' side & give you a hard time :)
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drina4jr

drina4jr


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PostSubject: Re: Nascar.com Right or Wrong   Nascar.com Right or Wrong I_icon_minitimeThu 08 May 2008, 3:22 pm

yep, thats my boy ;) lol. i love the way he always handles situations. honestly, sometimes i dont know how he keeps his cool, but he does. :) i can also see kyle maturing some this yr. i have to say, last year, i was not a kyle fan at all, but never bad mouthed him or his fans. i've never been that kind of race fan. i dont think neither kyle nor jr will have ill fillings about what happened last weekend at richmond, and neither should the fans toward each other. if only they could all just get over it at nascar.com :roll: i know this probably wont help anything, but i'd like to apologize to all kyle fans for what the majority of jr nation has said on nascar and other sites this past week and well, even before that. it's not right, i think anyone should be able to root for there favorite driver and not have to worry about the reactions of someone else. i love nascar, but the fans are out of control.
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