After seeing how the action went on Saturday night, at the moment, NASCAR has a new sheriff in charge of celebrating wins. And to think last year he was instead of strapped into his Toyota, he was in rehab working on broken bones.
Right now, Kyle Busch is absolutely showing up the competition, but is doing so in a smarter way than in year’s past.
Now I’ll be the first to admit, I am not necessarily one who picks Busch over other drivers to root for. In fact, for a while I saw him as being immature, too aggressive, and when things don’t go his way, he becomes that same whimpering kid we all used to be when we didn’t get our favorite candy or cereal from the grocery store.
If he had a bad race where he could have won, or had a bad accident to take him out, he’d find the easiest escape route to get away from cameras, media, and sometimes go off on anyone that was close by. In some cases when he did meet with the media, he’d sit there “just to not get fined”, to take a quote from Marshawn Lynch. And when he did speak, sometimes he would get angry and the moderator would then ask if anyone else had questions. Before the answer came in, Busch would escape and get out of the way to keep from having to deal with people.
This is not the same Busch anymore. His wreck last year at Daytona brought in a new perspective of how to treat himself, and others. Does he get frustrated still…absolutely, who wouldn’t in this sport?
But when he was forced to step out of the car with a broken leg and a broken ankle, in that moment he changed.
When he returned last May, he had to take on a daunting task of somehow making it into the Chase based on the criteria he was given because of the medical exemption. He not only did so, he did so in dominant fashion. He took that domination all the way through the Chase, and against all odds he would take home the most unexpected, and most shocking championship possibly in the history of NASCAR.
It took a little while for him to get back into his groove this year, but when he found it at Martinsville, he’s decided to hold onto it. He won the truck race, then went with a sweep when he won last Sunday.
On Friday night, a late restart took him to victory in the Xfinity race at Texas. One night later, the stampede continued with his fourth straight NASCAR event that has gone to victory lane.
I may not cheer for him when the No. 18 takes to the track, but I cannot and will not deny that he is currently the best driver on the circuit.
RESULTS: 1-Kyle Busch 2-Earnhardt Jr. 3-Logano 4-Johnson 5-Elliott 6-Truex Jr. 7-Edwards 8-Kahne 9-Kurt Busch 10-Harvick
NOTABLE FINISHES: 11-Kenseth 12-Hamlin 18-Keselowski
CAUTIONS: 7 for 41 laps. Laps: 1-5 (Green/Yellow Start); 30-33 (Competition [32]); 136-141 (Debris-T4); 212-221 (#30 Accident-T3); 280-284 (Debris-FS); 289-292 (#16, 5 Accident-T2); 295-301 (#3, 27, 7, 46, 14, 31, 17, 48, 15, 20, 6, 44, 23 Accident-BS).
LEAD CHANGES: 17 among 8 drivers. C. Edwards 1-30; D. Ragan 31; C. Edwards 32-58; M. Truex Jr. 59-72; M. Kenseth 73; C. Elliott # 74; M. Truex Jr. 75-137; C. Edwards 138-174; M. Truex Jr. 175-176; Kyle Busch 177; K. Harvick 178; C. Edwards 179-208; M. Truex Jr. 209-216; M. Kenseth 217-235; M. Truex Jr. 236-259; T. Bayne 260-271; M. Truex Jr. 272-301; Kyle Busch 302-334.
TIME OF RACE: 3 Hrs, 37 Mins, 16 Secs.
AVERAGE SPEED: 138.355 MPH
MARGIN OF VICTORY: 3.904 Seconds
CHASE GRID: 1. Kyle Busch-259 (points), 2 (wins); 2. Johnson-253, 2; 3. Harvick-252, 1; 4. Hamlin-201, 1; 5. Keselowski-201, 1; 6. Edwards, -18 (From 1st-Kyle Busch); 7. Logano, -25; 8. Earnhardt Jr, -48; 9. Kurt Busch, -52; 10. Dillon, -62; 11. Truex Jr, -73; 12. Kenseth, -89; 13. McMurray, -89; 14. Elliott, -92; 15. Allmendinger, -94; 16. Kahne, -99.