Kyle Busch And Dale Earnhardt
Young Gun Is Compared To Legend
It is funny how the media relentlessly searches for the next Dale Earnhardt.
Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt could not be any more different. Other than their driving style, which there happens to be other aggressive drivers in NASCAR, there is not much to the comparisons. First, in order to draw comparisons to ‘the Intimidator’, you have to be somewhat intimidating. Intimidating Busch is not.
Angrily walking over to Steve Wallace’s car with your helmet on completely erases any notion of an intimidating factor. Furthermore, Busch did not work his way up through the ranks in sub par rides. He was not even eighteen years old when Rick Hendrick handed him a contract, and before that, he was under the Roush Racing umbrella. Imagine if Junior Johnson or Petty Enterprises approached Dale Earnhardt when he was eighteen years old. Earnhardt would have like a thousand wins. Okay, that is an exaggeration, and obviously, times have changes since Earnhardt’s eighteenth birthday back in 1969, but you have to cover all angles if you are to draw logical comparisons.
You have to dig into the archives and watch some of Earnhardt’s post-race reactions. They are tough to explain. Other than a handful of incidents, he rarely flew off the handle. He was more of the ‘I don’t get mad, I get even’ type. Busch tends to wear his emotions on his sleeve. The incident with Wallace was a perfect example.
Earnhardt had a respectable fan base even when he was the ultimate bad boy in the mid 1980’s. Busch’s fan base may be one of the smallest of all NASCAR’s top 20 drivers.
What happened between Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was definitely unintentional and ‘just racing’. Busch was trying to win the race too. He slipped up the track because he was trying a little too hard. Busch’s defensive attitude afterwards is what has bothered some. He was furious with Wallace because of an incident that was ‘just racing’ and ironically, he had to defend himself for a similar occurrence 24 hours later.
Busch is a talented driver, but when it comes to personality, he alienates fans and other drivers.
Quote of the week
Steve Wallace on Kyle Busch
“He's just a little girl about it. I don't know. I think it's pretty bad when they call driver introductions and everybody in the grandstand boos you. He's a sore loser."
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