A Gracious Kyle Busch Emerges

I viewed a different Kyle Busch over the Indianapolis weekend. I will admit I was not present in Indiana to be an eyewitness to any of the racing events. Although my experience this past May for the big open wheel contests left me slightly pining to be “back home again in Indiana.”

What I saw was from the comfort of my own living room and television in North Carolina. Some of all three of NASCAR’s national series’ races came across my satellite signal and into my eyes staring from the couch. Not every lap of any one race did I sit through but I did catch a decent part of the action of the triple-header.

Mr. Busch made a competitive appearance in all three as well. That is not uncommon, the guy lives to hold a steering wheel it seems. What was welcome even more were his comments after climbing from each racing machine. Not just what he said, but that he said something at all.

Usually anything short of a win on his part brings some short responses with a hint of an unfriendly and sarcastic tone. Kyle finishes were tenth in the Truck Series, second in the Nationwide event, and thirty-eighth in the Sprint Cup show.

A true racer wants to win, not “have a good points day”. But nobody can win them all. All the teams realize this but winning is everyone’s goal when the green flag waves. And when a decent finish is achieved many drivers are happy, and they should be, but deep down they know they fell short of their goal. Winning.

Busch is a racer. He wants to win badly, and that is good. If I owned a team, I would want that type of driver. The type of driver that made everybody’s attitude while unloading the car at the shop on Monday morning unanimous. The type of driver that makes the team’s mechanics think “we knew exactly how good a car we had over the weekend because there is no question our driver got every ounce of speed out of it.”

In Indianapolis, the Las Vegas native did not make it to victory lane. However he did made it to a microphone and gave clear, definitive comments about each situation. And I thought it was great.

Here is a young man who is regarded as one of the top talents in the NASCAR family. Yet it remained difficult to get post race comments about any subject if the question asking did not take place in victory lane. He has been criticized for his interviews when a race did not fall to him in a favorable manner, if he granted anyone an interview at all. This season’s Indianapolis swing found him doing what many have been clamoring him to do for years. I hope people took notice.

I never want “The Show” to lose his desire to win. He is one of the drivers a broadcast network should keep a camera trained on during a race. Some of his moves in traffic need to be recorded on film and played on a highlight reel. As Darrell Waltrip said “Kyle can go three wide all by himself”.

But when you don’t win don’t just disappear. You don’t have to be happy about not winning. Heck, you can be down right mad, that’s fine. I would really like to hear what you have to say either way.

Races are won and lost in a multitude of ways, ask Juan Pablo Montoya. The view from the cockpit is one only the drivers’ share. Watching on television I see the same picture millions of others see. I want to hear about what I didn’t see. The view from under the helmet and behind the lexan is always most interesting.

If guys are happy when they climb from the window after the checkered flies that is great. If they are mad and need some time to cool off and gather their thoughts I am all for that too.

If a baseball player swings and misses strike three and a reporter with a recorder asks him how he feels as he is walking out of the batter box before he even gets back to the dugout what do you think his response would be? That is the equivalent of the box a race car driver can be in.

Milky white vanilla sponsor plugging sound bites are not what we are looking for either. Emotion and personality are what makes auto racing in general as interesting as it is.
But if a driver needs some time after climbing through the window before speaking, let him have it.

Kyle had a bumping finish with Joey Logano in the Nationwide event at Dover in June. The month before that Busch had a flat tire late in the Nationwide event in Darlington while leading. Both races were near wins that turned into heartbreaking finishes. We never heard from him after either. I would have liked to read about his take on what happened in both instances. He declined comment.

I feel there is a piece to those races’ stories that is missing. He doesn’t have to happy. He doesn’t have to be furious. He actually owes me nothing. But he was each event’s dominant driver and a big story. I feel the complete race story is not there without Kyle’s opinions and viewpoint. These are just two instances.

When Richard Petty was bringing up Kyle Petty and getting him ready to drive, Richard explained why he talked to every reporter after the race. As a race car driver “your job isn’t done until his is.” That attitude went a long way over many years to help further stock car racing from its southern roots to a bigger scale.

In today’s Sprint Cup, the demands on a professional driver’s time are challenging to say the least. There is no way to satisfy every request. Some of the stars would never have time to race again if that were attempted. But a good effort to accommodate is sure appreciated by fans and reporters.

I hope Kyle Busch keeps driving like he always has. And I hope that after every race he gives clear, definitive, and honest opinions. It’s nice to have him stick around and say what’s on his mind. Be himself and give a straight answer to a straight question. Let his emotion show too, that good. Bottom line is I hope he keeps talking because I’d like to keep listening.