The Working File

So Kyle Busch won, again, last night at Darlington, and over the past week I found that even though I knew he was unpopular, I probably underestimated to what extent. After his incident with Dale Jr. last week, there have been a lot of article about Kyle this week. To anyone who is long familiar with Nascar, much of this is basic knowledge, but to me its all new. After all, I just admitted to myself that I’m a Nascar fan very recently.

Apparently the history of Kyle’s unpopularity starts with his older brother Kurt:

Why? There are two primary reasons, I think: he’s the brother of Kurt Busch, who’s not winning any popularity contests himself; and he’s got a chip on his shoulder that’s as long as your arm … probably because he started his career having to explain himself for being the brother of Kurt Busch. Whatever.

Kyle also appears to have a history of reacting poorly to adversity and taunting. Regardless of who starts an incident, he seems to take it to the next level, and, while still young and showing signs of maturing a bit, this is still a problem.

But the real news to me was that Dale Sr. was apparently a very similar driver to Kyle: aggressive and unapologetic about trying to win. Dale Sr. built up an impressive list of both wins, and controversial incidents, over his long career. He was both loved and despised by many. Kyle Busch will have to go a long way before he matches Dale Sr. in either category. all of which leads me to a very tentative conclusion. It’s way, way, too early in Kyle’s career to make this determination, but the early signs are pointing in a certain direction, and the fear that this might be true could very well explain the visceral, nasty hatred shown by Dale Jr. fans, and to a lesser extent Nascar fans, towards Kyle Busch. The possibility, and the fear, is this:

Dale Jr. is, of course, Dale Sr.’s son and namesake, but Kyle Busch just might be Dale Sr.’s Nascar heir.

Tags: nascar earnhardt busch