| | | | | |  | | CIA Stock Photo | This is the kind of season that Busch has spent the past couple of years saying he could pull off. | | | | ONE OF THE ELITE | Busch calmly moving into NASCAR's elite ranks | |
| | Rea White / SceneDaily.com Putting a week of controversy firmly behind him, Kyle Busch drove with a ferocity that sometimes left him bouncing off the walls on his way to his third NASCAR Sprint Cup victory of the season in Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway.
With the win, the 23-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver not only widened his lead in the points standings, but he also continued to establish himself as one of the sport’s marquee drivers.
This is the kind of season that Busch has spent the past couple of years saying he could pull off. This is the kind of run that his team has always been capable of piecing together – just never before with this particular team. It’s what crew chief Steve Addington felt his No. 18 team could accomplish, though.
Busch has long been viewed as an up-and-comer, as a young talent capable of winning a championship if he could harness his fiery personality and avoid setbacks on the track.
This season, he’s proving that's the case.
He’s led 567 laps, has eight top-10 finishes in 11 races and holds a 79-point lead over Richard Childress Racing’s Jeff Burton in the
NASCAR Sprint Cup standings.
His opening to the season couldn’t be much better.
His focus clearly showed at Darlington, where he bounced off the walls of the 1.366-mile oval and continued forward, something people thought couldn’t be done.
After his win, Busch said that was the only way to handle this track with NASCAR’s new car and the tires that the newly paved surface
called for. Turns out he was right about that as well.
“You have to be out of control, and I was pretty much out of control, trying to hold onto the thing,” Busch says.
Spreading the credit for his win, he pointed to the people who keep him calm during races, the ones who help him keep his mind on the big picture and on getting to the front in races where the car is difficult to handle.
“Everybody,” he says when asked about who helps him on the radio. “Everybody did their part. Anyone that was on the radio. Addington did a great job, making great race calls. [My spotter] Jeff Dickerson up top -- he’s my savior every week. He’s a pretty awesome dude.”
In winning at Darlington, Busch put himself in elite company. Not only is he the youngest winner at the track, he also joins a list of
drivers with hall-of-fame careers.
Busch and his team are enjoying the run but aren’t getting too carried away with their early success this season. They felt they were
capable of this type of beginning to the season, so it’s not as if it can be considered a surprise. It is, however, something they don’t count on continuing.
Busch may be in only his fourth full season of Cup competition, but he’s seen the ups and downs that it can offer. So he’s not particularly overwhelmed with his early success, which includes not only victories in the Cup series, but also three wins in the Nationwide Series and two in the Craftsman Truck Series.
“I wouldn't say that I'm not impressed with what I've done,” he said. “And I'm very grateful and humble that I've been able to win six weeks in a row, yes, but I feel like there could have been more. And hopefully in the next couple weeks, I can go to Charlotte next week, I can either win a truck race or All‑Star Race or both, at that. That would be awesome. Then going into the 600 weekend, either win the 600 or have a great race car in the Nationwide race and try to win that thing.
“You go out there every weekend, like I said before, you have to think you're the best, you have to know you have the best guys working on your stuff, and you've got to be able to go out there and make the best out of it. If we make the best out of it, like tonight we did, and we won, that's awesome. If we make it a second, third or fourth, we have to take what we get that weekend. Inevitably this streak is going to end. It's not going to keep going every single weekend. I've just got to keep my smiles on hopefully.”
The team is equally optimistic.
JGR President J.D. Gibbs says that the success of the team – the one that Joe Gibbs started his Cup organization with – is rewarding to see. Perhaps more so is the relationships among members of that team.
“Yeah, I think first, just a huge encouragement when you kind of look back,” he said. “… We had a long dry spell there with the 18. That's kind of our baby we had 17 years ago. So for us, it means a lot. It's a lot of fun to do it with M&M's and still have Interstate Batteries on board, all those guys. Really having Kyle and the way he works together with those crew guys, which a lot of people don't see off the track, how close those guys are growing. That's kind of a special deal.”
That extends to the driver himself.
While Busch has been under fire for his aggressive driving style from time to time, while he’s somehow never captured the hearts and
imagination of NASCAR fans, he’s generally well-liked by his teammates. His former Hendrick Motorsports counterparts defend him when asked specifically about Busch’s style or personality and the same is true of the JGR group he joined this season.
Perhaps that makes it easier for Busch to withstand the chorus of boos raining down from the stands, a chorus that has grown in volume since his on-track incident with Dale Earnhardt Jr. May 3 at Richmond International Raceway. In that race, Busch made contact with the leading Earnhardt Jr. while battling for position, causing Earnhardt Jr. to spin and finish 15th. Busch went on to finish second – and draw the ire of the of the driver who annually tops the voting as the sport's most popular driver.
Busch's team, though, stands firmly behind him. They like his talent and his drive – and the fact that they are finally returning to victory lane on a regular basis.
“I like the balance that he has,” Addington says. “I mean, I don't have any problem with it. Everybody's got their opinion. He comes in
There, and he fits in with our race team, and his personality fits with this race team. That's all that I'm worried about.
“We go out and we get paid to do this. This is what we love to do, and we're very passionate about it. I think that he fits in with the group of guys that's on this 18 car, that they are very passionate about what they do. He's the same way about his driving and wanting to win trophies.” | | Posted May 12, 2008 , 9:14 pm EST
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