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Auto Racing
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Kyle Busch: the next Dale Earnhardt Sr.? Well, he’s tough as nails, and a darned hard driver!
The new Dale Sr.? Kyle Busch has the flare, the talent and the attitude...and he’s on a championship track
(Photo credit: Toyota Motorsports)
By Mike Mulhern
To translate this web page into Spanish click Here
DARLINGTON, S.C.
Kyle Busch seems almost unstoppable in the NASCAR world. And he certainly played a good ‘Indiana Jones’ Saturday night, escaping from certain disaster time and again all evening.
Busch, with a car painted up to promote Harrison Ford’s new thriller, provided plenty of thrills of his own in winning the Dodge Challenger 500, man-handling his battered Toyota in winning by more than three seconds over Carl Edwards.
It wasn’t a bit pretty, as races go; in fact it was downright ragged, with drivers bouncing off the walls all night. But Busch made it a heroic night, with another amazing performance, this one even better than that stunning victory at Atlanta back in March.
And the car Busch rolled into Darlington Raceway’s victory lane was so battered and bruised that it’s a wonder it could even roll.
Jeff Gordon, surprised at finishing third himself, said “I can’t tell you how many times Kyle tried to give this race away by hitting the wall. I can’t tell you how many times he hit the wall. It certainly wasn’t aerodynamics that won this one, because his car was all beat up.
“He is an incredibly talented driver.
“And I heard more noise for Kyle here than I’ve ever heard. I remember when I came in this sport, Dale Sr. always got the most noise from the crowd too.”
So call Kyle Busch NASCAR’s new Iron Man. He takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin.
And with his win in the 500-miler, Busch, who just turned 23, stretches his Sprint Cup tour points lead.
The crashing started early at Darlington: Elliott Sadler and Tony Stewart lap two Saturday night
(Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Every lap, all 367, seemed like a wreck just waiting to happen, though miraculously there were only eight cautions.
Yes, Busch may indeed be a ‘wild thang’ out on the track, but there is no doubting his talents – this was his eighth NASCAR national touring victory of the season, his third on the Cup tour, along with three Nationwide wins and two Truck wins. That’s downright astounding.
Busch was exhausted, like most drivers: “This is pretty awesome. Even with the fresh asphalt this place was tough.
“We’re going to go through a lot of tools this week fixing this thing.
“But this is pretty cool.
“However the car just doesn’t turn, just doesn’t want to turn. And there is only one lane around this place.”
Kyle Busch had some pit stop issues with loose lugnuts, and he had to rebound from a one-lap NASCAR penalty, but wound up winning Saturday night’s Darlington 500 running away
(Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Carl Edwards started 36th but rallied to second. “It’s good, I’m okay with it,” Edwards said. “The fastest car won. But I wanted to beat them so badly.
“Our pit crew came back. We were 43rd on the sheet the first day of practice, and I was down in the dumps. I was terrible. I thought this race was going to be a disaster.
“But to come back to finish second, well, the fastest car won.
“They ought to open this track to everybody in South Carolina and let them drive around here all day every day and wear this asphalt out. That’s what it needs.”
Gordon moved up to 10th in the standings but he’s still winless and he was not happy: “We’re definitely making big strides.
“Making good calls was key. All I tried to do was keep it off the walls. It was pretty much what I expected for new asphalt and new tires.
“I’m happy we got a top-five, a third, but I’m frustrated by how far off we are. We’ve got some work to do.”
Kyle Busch (18) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. could well be two of the top NASCAR championship contenders this season
(Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Dale Earnhardt Jr., last weekend’s controversial battler with Busch, finished fourth. “We had a real good car most of the week, though when the race started we weren’t quite like we had been. We were off a little bit.
“And you just could not pass. This was the worst I’ve ever seen it for not being able to pass.”
Busch had lug nut problems throughout the race, and he was even penalized a lap for having one missing after a stop. But he rallied back into contention…on a night when most of the field opted to play it very, very conservatively.
It was one of the strangest races ever at Darlington Raceway, and that goes a ways, considering this place has been around since 1950. But then running 200 mph at a track originally designed for cars maxed out at 135 mph, well, you’d expect some weirdness.
The race was only seconds old when the first incident took Tony Stewart and Elliott Sadler out of contention. Sadler got into the corner under Stewart and slid up into him. This is one of the few tracks on the NASCAR tour that Stewart has never won at. Sadler blamed himself: “I just made a huge mistake. I was trying to give him room but slipped. I don’t blame him if he’s mad at me.”
Greg Biffle was strong early, but a flurry of mechanic issues sidelined him. And Biffle was angry over those problems.
Drivers slapped the walls and each other throughout the four-hour race, in what was a night of frustration all the way around.
Denny Hamlin, who dominated Richmond a week ago only to lose with a flat tire just 20 laps from the finish, ran strong too, until Martin Truex Jr. and Hamlin, battling for seventh, tangled when Truex ran into Hamlin with 65 laps to go in the 367-lapper.
At that point, despite the bruising action, 21 cars were still on the lead lap.
Biffle started from the pole and led a lot early but loose wheels cost him. And Biffle was not happy with his team. “It is really frustrating, but I’ve just become accustomed to it…because week after week it’s something: something breaks, something falls off,” Biffle said after going out 39th.
“We’ve got wheels loose. We had wheels loose twice.
“I know everybody is trying their hardest, the guys are digging their hearts out. But the fact of the matter is in this sport, in this day and age, you cannot leave wheels loose. Not at this place, this fast. Somebody is going to get hurt….
“And there was another mechanical issue – It seems like it’s in the carburetor to me, because it doesn’t want to run.
“It’s just real frustrating. I give it 110 percent as a driver all the time….and you want your equipment to last, and be able to win these races. They’re so hard to win these days.
“You can deal with a flat tire or something like that. But when it’s self-induced, it makes it even harder to take. It makes it so hard to swallow.
“Multiple things have happened each race, and we’ve usually been lucky enough to slip through by the skin of our teeth. At Texas we weren’t able to (he finished 39th there too), and here we weren’t able to.”
It was a tough night for Dodge—another tough night – with none of its drivers ever in contention.
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Kyle Busch wins again—so how are those souvenir tee-shirt sales going?
(Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)
