Not so fast, youngsters

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abooja

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Wow, I've never heard this story about Dale Earnhardt Sr, Jr., and Kurt Busch. Pretty wild stuff!

Not so fast, youngsters

By: JIM HAWKINS, Of The Oakland Press
August 15, 2002

There is plenty of resentment, friction between NASCAR's veterans drivers and hot shot kids

BROOKLYN, Mich.

The Grand Pooh Bahs of NASCAR, ever eager to appeal to an even wider, younger audience, were openly elated earlier this summer over the emergence of hotshot, baby-faced drivers Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch.

However, inside the hot, cramped Fords, Chevys, Pontiacs and Dodges, traveling 180 mph over the asphalt, many of the grizzled veterans do not share that same appreciation of stock car racing's kiddie korps.

Some of the aging warriors, who bring their road show back to Michigan International Speedway Sunday for the Pepsi 400, resent all the attention the young guns have received. Many grizzled veterans, who had to pay their dues for years with underfinanced teams and hand-me-down equipment, are rankled by the fact that these kids have been immediately handed first-class rides.

NASCAR's honchos and sponsors may applaud the sport's new blood, but the old guard is out for blood - period.

The still-simmering season-long spat between "decrepit old has-been" Jimmy Spencer and brash 24-year-old Kurt Busch, who some believe may be the most talented all of all stock car racing's young pilots, is the latest example of that lingering animosity.

This is not the first time Busch has run afoul of a NASCAR veteran.

As a Winston Cup rookie in 2000, Busch had a collision with fair-haired young superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a late-season race. Through the garage grapevine, Busch heard rumors that Junior's dad, Dale Earnhardt Sr., intended to avenge his son.
Growing up in Las Vegas, Busch had always been a huge Dale Earnhardt fan. A poster of the legendary Intimidator hung on his boyhood bedroom wall.

As Busch waited with the other drivers to be introduced to the capacity crowd minutes before the 2001 Daytona 500, the elder Earnhardt, accompanied by his wife and daughter, walked by.

"Good luck, Mr. Earnhardt," young Busch called out.

Earnhardt didn't even acknowledge Kurt's presence.

A couple of hours later, roughly two thirds of the way through the big race, Earnhardt slid hard into the side of Busch's car coming out of Turn 4.

Then, to make certain the kid got the message, Earnhardt raised his middle finger as he roared past him.

PLEASE SEE HAWKINS/B-7

It would turn out to be one of The Intimidator's final acts.

Following the ugly incident at Indianapolis two weeks ago, when Spencer knocked Busch out of the race and Busch responded by defiantly patting his butt as it was pointed in Spencer's direction, NASCAR summoned both drivers to the principal's office for a chat.

Afterwards, it was obvious nothing had been resolved.

Busch still believes the accident was intentional. Team owner Jack Roush claims Spencer's conduct endangered Busch's life.

"It's completely expected from Jimmy, he's so hard-headed," Busch declared. "There's nothing you can say or do about his type of thinking. We're all race car drivers out there, all except for him. He's got the brain of a peanut."

Spencer continues to insist it was Busch who caused the crash by suddenly slowing down directly in front of him.

"I don't know if something broke on his car or what," the outspoken Spencer, also known as "Mr. Excitement," countered. "He just slowed down immediately and I bumped him.

"I think Kurt has a lot of learn," Spencer added, "and some of that is to control his mouth."

"It's up to those two," said Chip Ganassi, owner of Spencer's Dodge. "If they want to drive like kids, maybe they ought to be racing in a kids series. Jack (Roush) and I are the guys who get stuck paying the bills for that kind of stupid stuff."

In recent weeks, old guard drivers Sterling Marlin, Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd - all, like Spencer, well over the age of 40 - have all done their part to put the young upstarts in their place.

"(NASCAR) is not like the stick and ball sports - how fast you can run and how much weight you can lift," said Wallace. "In NASCAR, it's about how much you know and how long you've been there."

"I still feel young," insisted the 46-year-old Marlin, the two-time Daytona 500 winner who has been atop the Winston Cup points chase since the second race of the season. "I'll take 'em on in football anytime."

Of course, Marlin was once an all-state high school quarterback in Tennessee.

Marlin, Martin and Rudd have never won the Winston Cup championship. They are men on a mission. Elliott won his only title in 1988, Wallace his in 1989. They would both welcome one more before their motors are silenced.

All five men know the clock is ticking. They aren't about to let the kids lap them - at least not without a fight.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=...id=129912&rfi=6
 
Good article.

I can certainly understand why some of the veteran drivers would be a bit hacked. It's a tough sport to break in to. Just think, even the "worst" of them should theoretically rank in the top 50 stock car drivers in the world. The best way for the vets to prove their point is on the track though. And from the looks of things recently, they have been. The veterans and those I call the 'tweeners (Stewart, JeffyPoo, et al) have been more than holding their own. Jimmie is fading a tad, Newman is consistent, Busch is...well, he's Busch. Even ol' HarYuck is finishing better. And next year we get the Biffle-ator and who knows who all else.
 
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