Jilted and angry Busch losing sight of bright future
Posted: Tuesday July 17, 2007 12:54PM; Updated: Tuesday July 17, 2007 1:57PM
Dear Kyle Busch,
You might be on vacation right now, but you've certainly left some unfinished business lying open on your desk of life. As you sit by a lake somewhere, enjoying the last Nextel Cup off week of the season, that's hardly stopping the amount of buzz you've generated in your wake, enough for us writers to milk for the next two weeks until Indianapolis ... and then some.
Ever since that fateful day in June when Rick Hendrick said he'll let you go at the end of the year, things just haven't seemed quite right. Oh, the finishes on the track have been tremendous; five finishes of 13th or better since the announcement have enabled you to score more points than all but one of your Hendrick teammates. In fact, you're even beating your future replacement, the great Dale Earnhardt, Jr. himself. You're sitting ninth in points, with a comfortable margin over the guy in 13th, and all indications are that you're in perfect position to contend for your first title once Chase time comes around in September.
Of course, you're not thinking about that right now. What you are thinking about is doing your best to get yourself removed from your ride before this year is even complete. It's a flurry of wild statements, mood changes and borderline immaturity that even has Hendrick himself scratching his head at what's going on.
To me, you've been sounding over the last few weeks like a man more likely to be treated for depression than one headed to Victory Lane. Finish second at Daytona, and instead of being happy with runner-up, you're mouthing off about how your teammates didn't support you in the closing laps, forcing you to draft with your brother in order to have a shot at the win. Last weekend at Chicago, you took it one step further, claiming that in just five weeks you've gone from the most popular kid in school to the one who everyone's making fun of behind their back.
You certainly sounded like a kid shunned from the high school dance when you told reporters, "I had a sit down with Jeff [Gordon] there before the Coca-Cola 600 and that went really well, and then since all that's happened, I'm in the team meetings just sitting there listening. I don't even really talk about what my car does [in team meetings] because they all seem to talk amongst themselves. I'm sort of just sitting there in the corner."
It gets even worse. When asked about how your behavior might affect the way fans, media and others perceive you, you responded with, "My perception has been horrible since I came into this sport, so it doesn't really even matter any more."
With that type of answer, it's easy to see why Eeyore's been busy making a second home for you next door in the Hundred Acre Wood. In the meantime, the man who'll replace you is having the time of his life; Dale Jr. is busy laughing it up and taking a sigh of relief at his job with Dale Earnhardt, Inc., knowing it's his last, best chance to win a title under the DEI banner.
Sure, Junior got to make his own decisions regarding what his future will be; but frankly, I don't think you're headed to the outhouse. On the contrary, team owners have been bending over backwards for you, throwing wads of cash and whatever else they can to get you to join their growing organizations. Tony Stewart calls you a "dart without feathers," and Joe Gibbs turns around and still makes an offer for your services. RCR's No. 1 driver Kevin Harvick claims he'll never work with you as a teammate, and his car owner promptly ignores those comments en route to courting you harder than any free agent has been in recent memory.
Why all the hoopla over you? Because you're talented. In fact, you're probably in position to become one of the top 5 drivers this sport has ever seen. Your older brother's no slouch; he has one Cup championship under his belt, but his stats when he was 22 pale in comparison to yours. If you can just change your outlook and grab a little bit of maturity along the way, there's really no limit to the future you can achieve.
To get there, you're going to need to relax, take a deep breath and get over the pain of losing your ride. Yes, what happened to you at Hendrick was hardly fair; rarely has a driver running in the top 10 in points been kicked out of his car, especially when a first-year teammate of his has had half the stats and a rocky performance through the first four months of his tenure. But in the end, there's no stopping the final result; whether it was immaturity, overstating your value or falling victim to the NASCAR sensation that is Dale Earnhardt, Jr., you became the odd man out in the power play to make Hendrick Motorsports the most influential team in NASCAR. No amount of mouthing off or poor sportsmanship is going to change the final result, so it's about high time you got over it, don't you think?
John F. Kennedy once said that change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. Right now, that's exactly what you're doing, and it's threatening to make the next step of your career more difficult than it ever should be.
So, sit back, relax and enjoy the rest of your ride with Hendrick Motorsports. Right now, you're in the best equipment you've had throughout your three-year Cup career. It'd be a shame if you put that all to waste while sitting on the verge of something truly great.
Posted: Tuesday July 17, 2007 12:54PM; Updated: Tuesday July 17, 2007 1:57PM
Dear Kyle Busch,
You might be on vacation right now, but you've certainly left some unfinished business lying open on your desk of life. As you sit by a lake somewhere, enjoying the last Nextel Cup off week of the season, that's hardly stopping the amount of buzz you've generated in your wake, enough for us writers to milk for the next two weeks until Indianapolis ... and then some.
Ever since that fateful day in June when Rick Hendrick said he'll let you go at the end of the year, things just haven't seemed quite right. Oh, the finishes on the track have been tremendous; five finishes of 13th or better since the announcement have enabled you to score more points than all but one of your Hendrick teammates. In fact, you're even beating your future replacement, the great Dale Earnhardt, Jr. himself. You're sitting ninth in points, with a comfortable margin over the guy in 13th, and all indications are that you're in perfect position to contend for your first title once Chase time comes around in September.
Of course, you're not thinking about that right now. What you are thinking about is doing your best to get yourself removed from your ride before this year is even complete. It's a flurry of wild statements, mood changes and borderline immaturity that even has Hendrick himself scratching his head at what's going on.
To me, you've been sounding over the last few weeks like a man more likely to be treated for depression than one headed to Victory Lane. Finish second at Daytona, and instead of being happy with runner-up, you're mouthing off about how your teammates didn't support you in the closing laps, forcing you to draft with your brother in order to have a shot at the win. Last weekend at Chicago, you took it one step further, claiming that in just five weeks you've gone from the most popular kid in school to the one who everyone's making fun of behind their back.
You certainly sounded like a kid shunned from the high school dance when you told reporters, "I had a sit down with Jeff [Gordon] there before the Coca-Cola 600 and that went really well, and then since all that's happened, I'm in the team meetings just sitting there listening. I don't even really talk about what my car does [in team meetings] because they all seem to talk amongst themselves. I'm sort of just sitting there in the corner."
It gets even worse. When asked about how your behavior might affect the way fans, media and others perceive you, you responded with, "My perception has been horrible since I came into this sport, so it doesn't really even matter any more."
With that type of answer, it's easy to see why Eeyore's been busy making a second home for you next door in the Hundred Acre Wood. In the meantime, the man who'll replace you is having the time of his life; Dale Jr. is busy laughing it up and taking a sigh of relief at his job with Dale Earnhardt, Inc., knowing it's his last, best chance to win a title under the DEI banner.
Sure, Junior got to make his own decisions regarding what his future will be; but frankly, I don't think you're headed to the outhouse. On the contrary, team owners have been bending over backwards for you, throwing wads of cash and whatever else they can to get you to join their growing organizations. Tony Stewart calls you a "dart without feathers," and Joe Gibbs turns around and still makes an offer for your services. RCR's No. 1 driver Kevin Harvick claims he'll never work with you as a teammate, and his car owner promptly ignores those comments en route to courting you harder than any free agent has been in recent memory.
Why all the hoopla over you? Because you're talented. In fact, you're probably in position to become one of the top 5 drivers this sport has ever seen. Your older brother's no slouch; he has one Cup championship under his belt, but his stats when he was 22 pale in comparison to yours. If you can just change your outlook and grab a little bit of maturity along the way, there's really no limit to the future you can achieve.
To get there, you're going to need to relax, take a deep breath and get over the pain of losing your ride. Yes, what happened to you at Hendrick was hardly fair; rarely has a driver running in the top 10 in points been kicked out of his car, especially when a first-year teammate of his has had half the stats and a rocky performance through the first four months of his tenure. But in the end, there's no stopping the final result; whether it was immaturity, overstating your value or falling victim to the NASCAR sensation that is Dale Earnhardt, Jr., you became the odd man out in the power play to make Hendrick Motorsports the most influential team in NASCAR. No amount of mouthing off or poor sportsmanship is going to change the final result, so it's about high time you got over it, don't you think?
John F. Kennedy once said that change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. Right now, that's exactly what you're doing, and it's threatening to make the next step of your career more difficult than it ever should be.
So, sit back, relax and enjoy the rest of your ride with Hendrick Motorsports. Right now, you're in the best equipment you've had throughout your three-year Cup career. It'd be a shame if you put that all to waste while sitting on the verge of something truly great.