By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM
June 12, 2009
04:14 PM EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Kyle Busch would smash it again.
"I don't regret it," the NASCAR driver said of his guitar-slinging antics in Victory Lane after winning last week's Nationwide Series event in Nashville. "I thought it was fun. Doing it was fun."
Of course, doing it also evoked a horrified reaction from many fans, who viewed Busch's smashing of the Sam Bass-painted Gibson Les Paul trophy as some act of disrespect. Friday at Michigan International Speedway, Busch said "99.99 percent" of the reaction he's heard to his impromptu Pete Townshend imitation has been positive. Even the children of J.D. Gibbs, president of Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing team, thought it was cool. The lone dissenting voice was one fan at a late model event Busch attended in Berlin, Mich., who told the driver to not break any more guitars.
Busch isn't making any promises.
"It was fun, and a lot of people enjoyed it and thought it was different. [It made] sports not so vanilla," he said with a smile. "A lot of people hated it, and I guess those are the ones with 88s tattooed on their arm. Or maybe still 8s. I've got no issues with [Dale Earnhardt] Junior -- it's his fans that are crazy. But that's all right."
There he goes, poking the monster again. But that's Busch, who clearly enjoys tweaking the noses of fans who deride him, the impact on his own popularity be damned. No question, Busch isn't always entirely comfortable in the villain role he's been cast in. But if he's going to have to play it, he might as well enjoy it.
Which he obviously did Friday. Talking about his Nashville celebration and the decidedly mixed reaction to it, he wore a broad smile across his face. Looking for contrition? Looking for repentance? Look somewhere else.
"That's sort of my way of livening it up," he said of the guitar smash, which followed a fiery victory burnout and his trademark bow. "We just went a little far there in Nashville, further I should say, in trying to make some excitement. It's not going to happen to the [Daytona 500] trophy, it's not going to happen to the Martinsville clock. I've heard some of those. Again, it was just in the spirit of rock and roll with a guitar. That's what it was about. I tried doing a good impression and like I said, it didn't turn out very well. I don't know if I'm not strong enough or that thing was that strong. I'll go with both." (Continued)
It's all enough to have the Busch bashers stewing, which was probably his intent to begin with. Always a pot-stirrer -- remember, this is the guy who said the new Sprint Cup car stunk after winning the first race in it -- Busch can get a large portion of the NASCAR fan base bent out of shape with just a few, select words, and he knows it. So do many of the other drivers he competes against.
"He has that personality, and the success, that people are going to love or hate. You don't sit on the fence with Kyle," Jeff Burton said. "He evokes passion. There are an awful lot of people that really don't like him at all, there are an awful lot of people that passionately like him. That's the same way you feel about the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees, and that's a good thing. That's what makes the fan come. That's what make sports fun. It's much more fun to pull against somebody than pull for somebody. I think our sport needs those people. Kyle seems to enjoy it. He seems to relish it, and many times promote it just because he wants to. That's his business, and if that's how he wants to do it, it's OK with me."
Burton also doesn't think it's an act. "I don't think it's something that can be fabricated. You either evoke that passion or you don't, and I don't think he does fabricate it," he said. "I think it's just him being him. And I think he likes it when he [ticks] somebody off, to be quite honest. He stands pat and says, 'This is how it is, this is who I am, like it or not, this is what it is.' That's OK."
Richard Childress understands, too. The six-time champion car owner had a driver in Dale Earnhardt who was one of the most popular figures in the history of the sport, but also one of the most polarizing. Everyone knows that a large portion of the fan base thought Earnhardt was a working-class hero. But people forget, another large portion thought him an unapologetic bully. Both sides were wrapped up in that unmistakable Intimidator persona.
"Dale had the style, the look, the walk. Kyle's got his style, look, walk," Childress said. "When Jeff Gordon came in, he had his style, the prep look, the young, GQ look I think they used to call it, and he picked his fans. Kyle's going to have his fans. The thing Dale always would say is, 'as long as they're hollering, they're watching.' If they're booing or cheering, he'd say, I want to hear 'em holler."
And they certainly holler when Busch invokes Earnhardt Jr.'s name. Two weeks ago in the wake of the No. 88 team's crew chief change, he stirred it up by opining that underperformance would always be fault of Junior's crew chief, and not the driver. Friday, it was him blaming Junior Nation for fueling the heightened level guitar-bash indignation.
"Certain people just like to stir things up," Jimmie Johnson said. "Kyle, I'm sure at points, regrets stirring up the pot. But at other points I think he thrives on it. I see a [Darrell Waltrip] in the making, of sorts. We all know Darrell in one way, and Darrell doesn't come off as somebody who bad mouths a lot of people. But you put a camera in front of him and put him on the race track, and you've got the nickname Jaws. I kind of see that side of it. I'm sure he's going to regret calling out the fans. By focusing on Junior alone, yeah, he'll have the fans on him. Now he's going to start up a whole new wave. Who knows, he may be loving it."
He is. Even Busch admits, he can't believe how much attention his Nashville celebration attracted. The guitar smash ignited so much conversation, the ranting of the anti-Busch brigade somewhat overshadowed even Tony Stewart's first victory as a driver and owner one day later at Pocono. To him, it all adds up to one conclusion.
"Sounds to me like the Most Popular Driver award goes to Kyle Busch this year, right?" he said, that Cheshire-cat grin etched across his face once again. Oh, how the masses will love that one.
