|
Posted on February
28, 2008
The
Busch Brothers… An Anomaly in NASCAR
When each of the Busch
brothers independently arrived on the
Cup scene, they weren’t the best
received by the fans and their
popularity has been debated, but never
their ability to drive a car.
They weren’t like the
other drivers in the way they talked or
their mannerisms. No, plain and simple
they were pure bred race car drivers.
If you listen to Kyle or
Kurt talk, all they know is racing.
Before breaking into NASCAR they would
run anything and everything that they
could climb into from dirt late models
to sprints to karts or a cardboard box
down a hill. If there were three
separate events at their local track
they would try to find a way to drive
them all. They didn’t focus on being
“cool” or popular, they honed their
skills on being great race car drivers
and it shows.
Kurt went out in 2004 and
won a championship early in his career
with Roush and then followed up with
some controversy at the end of the next
season resulting in him parting ways
with his championship winning team. He
was sat out of the end of the 2005
season despite making the newly formed
“Chase” squelching any bid he had at
repeating as champion.
It’s taken him a few
seasons to get back in the “flow” after
moving to Penske, but from finishing a
lackluster 16th in points in
2006 he rebounded in 2007 to get a pole,
2 wins, 6 top 5’s and 14 top 10 finishes
resulting with a 7th place
berth in points.
Currently with a 2nd
place finish at the 2008 season opener
in Daytona and a 13th at
California, he sits solidly 4th
in points going into Las Vegas.
All the while his younger
brother Kyle has had his own set of ups
and downs.
Somewhat overshadowed in
2007 by his soon to be former teammates
Gordon & Johnson, Kyle kept on getting
it done even after being handed his
walking papers by Hendrick and as a
“lame duck” driver in the team went on
to get a win, had 11 tops 5’s, 20 top
10’s and finishing 5th in
points.
He drove like he was
making a point in that maybe Rick
Hendrick had made a mistake and you
could almost see that exact thing in
Rick’s eyes during the 2007 awards
ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria in NYC.
I don’t think it was done out of spite,
but more from a need to feel like he
hadn’t blown a chance to impress one of
the top team owners in NASCAR. You never
know when another chance might arise and
Kyle didn’t burn any bridges.
Considering his age that was quite an
accomplishment in addition to the season
that he had.
Kyle then moved over to
be teammates with Tony Stewart & Denny
Hamlin for 2008 in the no. 18 Interstate
battery car fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing.
A lot of people were
wondering how Kyle would fit in, not to
mention that JGR was in a transition of
their own switching over to Toyota.
That question has been
answered so far with Kyle leading the
points heading into Las Vegas where
after just four starts hasn’t finished
worse than 14th and the rest
being all top 10’s.
There has been many
brother duos racing in NASCAR, but at no
time did you have two that were both as
serious of contenders to win races and
championships at the same time as you
see with the likes of the Busch
brothers.
They may not be the most
popular or in any way fit the template
for your typical ‘good old boy’ NASCAR
racer, but man do they have talent. At
the end of the day isn’t that what us as
fans want to see, the best of the best
racing on Sunday?
If you keep an open mind
and focus solely on their commitment and
talent you will be impressed with their
abilities and see them for the serious
contenders that they are. Whether it’s
Kyle “dirt tracking” it at 180 mph to
the front or Kurt always seeming to be
there at the end, they have what it
takes to win races and championships.
If you asked them they
would probably say that’s all they want
from the fans, to look at them for their
talents and not judge them for not
fitting the typical “mold”. They’ve
earned the respect in the garage from
their peers so maybe it’s time for us as
fans to give them the same.
You can
contact Gregg at
feedback@racefanvote.com
The opinions expressed
on this site are not necessarily those of the publisher. All
comments other than website related problems need to be directed to
the author. Copyright 2000-2008 SpeedwayMedia.com.
More by
this author:
Click here to
discuss this story at our forum!
|
.gif)
