Around Iredell Sports

2007 Oct-26

Kyle Busch has matured on track

Kyle Busch smiles as he waits in the garage area during practice for the Bank of America 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord on Oct. 11. AP photo

By Mike Mulhern

HAMPTON, Ga. - While the focus is on his Hendrick teammates’ battle for the NASCAR championship, Kyle Busch is still one of this year’s big success stories, and not so much for what he has done on the track as for his growing maturity.

“I appreciate it, but honestly, I don’t know … I haven’t really changed much of anything of what’s been going on around me and within me,” Busch said “Maybe having a little bit better surroundings has been the biggest thing, just a couple different people I’ve got around me now helping out, doing some things differently for me.

“Other than that, I’m just trying to figure out how to grow up, I guess.”

He’s certainly doing a good job, much better than might have been expected, considering how untamed he seemed during his first months on the tour.

But over the late spring and early summer, Busch changed dramatically. He’s no longer acting like a 22-year-old kid.

And, considering the disarray in the Jack Roush camp, where teammates Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards are at odds with each other, and where peace and harmony certainly don’t prevail, Busch’s attitude about his teammates is positive— after a brief post-race pout during the summer.

That attitude may come into play here in Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto 500, when team orders may be key to some precious Chase points.

At Dover a few weeks ago, when Busch was still a contender in the Chase, teammate Casey Mears was asked late in the day to give up a spot to Busch on the track. And Mears did, raising a few eyebrows, since racers are supposed to race, and not just pull down and let a man by, even if it is a teammate.

The ethics of a driver’s simply giving a spot to a rival, particularly a teammate, is debatable. Even if makes good business sense, it’s still not very sportsmanlike.

But NASCAR apparently brushed it all off.

“We asked. He wasn’t told. We asked,” Busch said of the incident. “We went to Casey — we were running with each other — and asked if he would give us a break and give us a spot if it wasn’t going to hinder him any and if it was OK that he could do it.

“He got asked that same thing by (teammate) Jeff Gordon, I think at Kansas … and didn’t lay over for Jeff because he wants to finish the best he can.

“We had a team meeting about it, and he talked about it, and we agreed with him that it’s not necessarily the best thing for him to do because he’s battling a points deal, too.

“Luckily he gave us a spot, and we were very appreciative. We talked after the race. It wasn’t a team order — it was his decision.

“I had to do the same two years ago for Jeff,” Busch said. “And I did it three years ago for Jeff, too, when we were at Charlotte the fall race. Jeff was having a horrible day, running 32nd, and we were running 30th. So I had to come down pit road and sit there for two laps to give Jeff two laps so he could finish two spots further up.

“You try to help out with what you can, to try to get a guy a championship. If it’s a teammate and you don’t have a shot at it, then why not? It will come back to you another way somehow.

“It’s Karma, dude.”

And Busch has been working hard on his karma.

But will that be enough for things to turn around for Busch here?

“I’m not sure what it is about Atlanta, but we seem to have a thing for 12th-place finishes,” Busch said. “We have had flashes of brilliance, and then just can’t finish out the race. Alan (Gustafson, his crew chief) and I have talked about it: We need to pace ourselves.”

If they can just get past those championship frustrations ...

“We finished third and fourth the past two weeks (at Martinsville and Charlotte) and lose 10 points on Jeff Gordon,” Busch said. “But the team has been hitting on all cylinders, and I know if we didn’t have the wrecks in Kansas and Talladega we would be right up there challenging Jeff and Jimmie (Johnson) for the lead.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow, but if Jeff or Jimmie have two bad races, we could be right up there at the end. But I think it’s between my teammates.”

One of Busch’s problems here isn’t uncommon — excessive tire wear. Atlanta Motor Speedsway eats tires, almost like Rockingham and Darlington, and drivers, while they like the fact that the tires “give up” speed at the 1½-mile track over a typical 100-mile run, have to baby them early on.

“Last race at Atlanta Kyle was very fast out of the gate, but we had some issues with him ‘cording’ the tires halfway through a run,” Gustafson says. “Kyle drives hard every single lap, so this time we need to help pace him so we can make the tires last through the entire run.

“We’ve been pretty good at the 1½-mile tracks, so I think we should have good results if we can just make it through a tire run.”

If car owner Rick Hendrick hadn’t decided to drop Busch for Dale Earnhardt Jr., Busch would certainly be one of the drivers to beat for the 2008 championship, too. And Busch still may be, if new boss Joe Gibbs has his act together with new manufacturer Toyota. And that’s a big “if.”

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