It’s not something that someone would necessarily be proud of, but in the vein of ‘any PR is good PR’, NASCAR has been mentioned on a Forbes.com list.
Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Cup champion and the former Penske Racing driver has made the list of America’s Most Disliked Athletes.
Busch joins the likes of Tiger ‘meet my wife, oh wait a minute’ Woods, Plaxico ‘ready, aim fire’ Burress, Michael ‘who let this dog out’ Vick and LeBron ‘Cleveland doesn’t really rock’ James.
But does Busch really deserve to be counted among those ‘great’ American athletes. Busch has showed his temper on and off the track on more than one occasion in the past few years. Jack Roush sent him packing a few years ago after Busch let loose on a deputy sheriff in Arizona. Not long before that he and then driver Jimmy Spencer had a meeting in the garage that only added to his growing ‘legendary’ status as a hot headed guy who wears a firesuit for a living.
The past season Busch had several confrontations on the track and several with reporters including incidents where he had to be restrained and where he tore up a reporters notes. Then to top it all off, Busch was caught on video delivering a profanity laced tirade to ESPN reporter Jerry Punch. Of course those were only the incidents that were witnessed; there is no definitive record of what Busch might have been up to, who he might have let loose on, when there were no camera phones or witnesses.
The final incident at Homestead with Dr. Punch was the final straw for Roger Penske and he and Busch parted ways at the end of the season. It was his second ‘divorce’ from a NASCAR team counting Roush and was on top of the real divorce he had to endure from his wife last year.
With Busch’s actions on and off the track in recent years, there is little doubt as to why he is disliked. If he were winning race after race, the story might be different, but with fewer race wins than some of NASCAR’s top stars and his now legendary temper there isn’t really all that much for fans to like.
Busch’s younger brother, Kyle, on the other hand has complied seemingly as many incidents as his older brother, yet has a legion of fans many of whom have dubbed him a ‘bad boy’. Kyle though has not only won more races but been more competitive. He may have polarized fans, some love him, some hate him, but Kyle has succeeded in winning enough over that he actually enjoys some popularity.
So does Kurt deserve to be on a list of the America’s Most Disliked Athletes? Absolutely. As he has done in the past, Busch apologized profusely at the end of 2011 and said he would get help and be better in 2012. But he has apologized before and the promises of change have always fallen flat. Until the season gets underway and Busch can prove otherwise, he’s still the driver who has been fired twice and showed more rage than some professional wrestlers on pay-per-view.
Busch will be with a new team this season, under financed Phoenix Racing. And with his history of directing his anger at those providing sub-par equipment, future fireworks are certainly not out of the question. It’s up to Busch to prove everyone wrong and win fans over. For now he remains in the ‘dislike’ column. As for NASCAR they need to look at the silver lining of the Forbes list; after all anytime mainstream media puts a driver in with a group of athletes it helps validate what those in NASCAR have said all along; drivers are indeed athletes. That makes this ‘any’ PR actually very ‘good’ PR.
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