Funny thing happened on Kyle Busch’s stroll to the championship. After winning an incredible 8 of 22 races in the 2008 season, “Wild Thing” has suddenly become mortal, prompting the 23-year-old to declare “We’re done” after a day cut short Sunday at Dover.
Has he lost it? Is Busch succumbing to the pressure of crunch time? Are we seeing NASCAR’s equivalent of the Atlanta Braves- a team dominant during the regular season who comes up a little short at the end?
Contrary to what the driver of the #18 Toyota may have believed, he still very much has a chance.
What may be the curse of the Chase, may be the beauty of the Chase at the same time. What Busch has going for him is there are still 8 races left. There’s really no such thing as an insurmountable lead at this point in the schedule. “Rowdy” will still have turn it around in a big way, and he’s going to have to track down the best in the business to make it happen. Jimmie Johnson’s hot, Greg Biffle has found the ever so slight difference between being good enough to being a winner, then you have Carl Edwards sitting precariously in first place.
It won’t be easy, but then what Busch did early in the year was pretty darn close to unprecedented too. If I’m Busch, I’m salivating at the idea of going back to Talladega- where I won earlier in the year. I’m looking at Kansas and thinking that’s an easily winnable track for me. I’m knowing that I’ve been winning at every kinds of course imaginable including the dreaded road courses of Infineon and Watkins Glen. I start thinking about that, and I start feeling pretty darn confident, and I’m ready to rally.
I won’t suggest that Busch is too immature to pull himself together for a monster stretch run. How crazy drivers get in the heat of the moment is only too well documented by the much-publicized radio communications by the likes of Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Shrub himself in the last two races. The pressure of winning in crunch time does funny things to people and there as many ways to cope with it as there are drivers out there trying to do it.
Is Kyle Busch choking? I wouldn’t bet on it. He’s gotta race uphill to get out of the hole he’s in, but only Busch really knows whether or not he’s got the huzpah to pull it off.
I wouldn’t be the one to bet against him.
