When Kyle Busch won his fourth race of the season Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway it wasn’t exactly the most popular victory of the year, at least if you judge it by the reaction of the more than 160,000 fans that let go a chorus of ‘boos’ after Busch climbed from his car at the finish line.
The last time one can remember hearing that many boos at a Bristol night race was in August 1999 when the legendry Dale Earnhardt Senior punted Terry Labonte out of the way to score the win.
The two men had a history at Bristol. In 1995, Labonte was leading the race and Earnhardt was the pursuer. Labonte got caught up in lapped traffic and Earnhardt was finally able to catch him. On the last lap, Earnhardt put a bumper to Labonte just before the finish line and Labonte’s car turned right, careened into the wall and was pushed across the line for the win. Labonte limped into victory lane with a crumbled car spewing fluids and all. 
In 1999 Earnhardt was leading when Labonte caught him. A caution flag came out, and Labonte was forced to pit while Earnhardt kept the lead. When the green flag dropped with only a handful of laps left, Labonte was able to catch up and on the white flag lap was able to pass Earnhardt. Earnhardt in turn again put a bumper to Labonte spinning him out and setting off a multi-car crash. Earnhardt went on to win Labonte was scored eighth.
When Earnhardt got out of his car in victory lane his TV interview was hard to hear as the chorus of nearly ‘boos’ drowned him out.
Not so different then this past Saturday night.
When Earnhardt Senior suffered an untimely death on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 his legendary status only grew…and rightfully so. But what some people who are new to the sport might not realize is that during his heyday Dale Earnhardt Senior had nearly has many detractors as he did fans. He was brash, bold, not afraid to speak his mind and not afraid to push the envelope on the track in order to win a race.
Many the same kind of traits displayed by Kyle Busch.
Since he came onto the NASCAR scene in the Cup Series fulltime in 2005, Busch has been outspoken off the track and not afraid to inject himself in controversy on the track. He comes off as arrogant, self centered and cocky. He’s a sore loser and makes no excuses for his actions when he wins, even if those wins mean pushing the envelope to do it sometimes.
Not so different then Dale Earnhardt Senior during his prime.
No one is implying that Busch is another Earnhardt Senior. Any driver would be hard pressed to equal Earnhardt’s win total and seven championships. But one thing that has been missing since Earnhardt Seniors tragic loss in 2001 is a driver with the same kind of traits he displayed.
During Earnhardt’s time NASCAR began to transform itself into a national sport and started to become vanilla with drivers being coached by public relation’s reps and spouting the name of their sponsor seemingly in their sleep. And to the detriment of many fans the sport became so politically correct it was hard to tell one driver from the other.
As the sport changed, though, Earnhardt refused to change with it all that much. He was the chocolate in a sea of vanilla, the pepper in the salt.
No matter if he won or lost, whether you loved him or hated him, Earnhardt gave fans a reason to watch.
Since 2001, the element that Earnhardt Senior kept in the sport seems to have been missing.
Kyle Busch has brought some of that back, though. And NASCAR is a more interesting sport because of it.
Recently Busch seems to have tempered his ways somewhat. When he loses he isn’t as critical and his comments are becoming more in line with everyone else.
Let’s hope that trend doesn’t continue. Because love him or hate him, cheer for him or boo him, NASCAR needs Kyle Busch, now more then ever.
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Comments
I dont know if you make me laugh or want to puke, to even utter or write this idiots name in the same sentence with Earnhardt Sr. is a damm joke. This guy is a clown, if I had paid hundreds of dollars to go see Bristol Sat. and this absolute joke for a person won, I think I would give up Nascar!
Kyle is what Jr. Nation wishes they had, can you imagine how much more popular Jr would be if he could at least compete with Kyle, much less create the excitment that Kyle does.
This comparison has gotten very old. Kyle Busch is not Dale Earnhardt, not even close. I am so sick of people saying stuff like this. He has shown no class at all. If he was 2nd to Mark Martin he would have tried to wreck him to win and if he would have still finished second he would complain. I wish he would join the U.S. F1 team. He is NOT what Nascar needs.
Comparing Kyle Bush to Dale Sr. is like comparing a pea to a watermelon! To mention them together in any comparison is a lazy writer filling space and it's been done to death! Sr. was an old school hard nosed RACER who had nothing given to him. He came out of the old school bullrings which was a totally different world, a totally different time. He came with a respect for the sport, for the history of the sport, he came with an inner toughness that Bush knows nothing about.
Kyle Bush is an arrogant punk kid who happens to have talent and a lacking upbringing. One day he will meet his Jimmy Spencer and really have something to cry about. As I remember that, Kurt wouldn't get out of the car and was stupid enough to keep telling Spencer to hit him, he got hit! Did he have the fortitude to fight back? No, he wanted his lawyers! Now I think Kurt finally has gotten the message. Maybe not tho, he still called Penske "dude" ONCE! Kyle needs his Spencer to ever learn respect for anything!
I am a diehard Elliott fan and to defend Dale Earnhardt in his day would have got me banded from the club. Dale Earnhardt was a man and more of a man than Kyle at his age. Not saying Dale didn't run his mouth but I always felt that it was coming from a man.
Kyle's reaction to situations appears to be very smirk and childish. I do hate the politically correctness of the sport. I guess I am old school but he represents an attitude that is not acceptable to many of the fans. He needs to address issues and wins like a man.
Now lets tell it like it is i was never a Earnhart fan and wish all of u would realize he is DEAD, and what really makes ya mad is that jr is nothin but another Kyle petty and wished he could run like Busch, regaurdless of what ya say close to a legend like Earnhardt, your dang right he models his self after his hero Dale earnhardt, this kid has watched everything this man has done and wants to be as great or if not greater then this man and could possible pull it off he has enough time anyways u Busch haters keep on hating His fans have his back just like Earnhardt fans had there drivers back Oh by the way Kyle had a charity race in nashville Sunday what a gentleman got to meet him maybe u haters need to do the same
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