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Busch Accepts Role As NASCAR's Villain
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Published: September 14, 2008
LOUDON, N.H. - Jimmie Johnson was conducting his weekly media availability when NASCAR representative Kerry Tharp mistakenly referred to him as Kyle Busch.
"You saying I look like him?" Johnson said, feigning insult. "I know I'm ugly, but come on."
Johnson was joking, but there was an unmistakable dig at the fact that Busch is the NASCAR driver who isn't getting much love these days.
With his brusque personality, aggressive driving and recent penchant for visiting Victory Lane all too often, Busch - the Sprint Cup points leader entering today's opening Chase race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway - is providing NASCAR with the villain it so desperately needs.
Being a bad guy in a sport reliant on corporate sponsorship isn't easy. Companies spend millions of dollars to attach themselves to a driver, and they don't want a jerk. But Dale Earnhardt Sr. pulled off having a mean side for 20-plus years, and Tony Stewart has gotten away with being a rogue.
Now Busch, who has had celebrated on-track run-ins this year with fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards, is making it work.
"We definitely have a bad guy, and I'm not necessarily sure it has been earned the way you would want it," Kevin Harvick said.
Jeff Burton agrees that Kyle Busch has carved out an image for himself, but he says fans need somebody to root against.
"I think that's what makes sports work, period, not just our sport," Burton said. "What's cool about going to a Duke-Carolina game? What's cool about going to a Red Sox-Yankees game? Part of the passion is just really not liking the other team.
"It's OK to not like somebody. Think about the poor guy that got set loose in the Coliseum with a tiger chasing after him. The spectators were pulling for the tiger."
Busch may have feelings, but he doesn't seem bothered by the eruption of boos he gets during driver introductions.
He even plays to his detractors, egging them on by bowing and thrusting his arms in the air during his victory celebrations.
"I'd rather people dislike me for who I am than like me for someone I'm not," he said earlier this summer. "Everyone wants to be cheered, but I can certainly handle it if I'm not, because I know I go out there and put out my best effort each time I race."
Busch isn't as unpopular with fellow drivers as he is with fans who know only of his image. Most drivers are quick to point to his undeniable talent. But he has his detractors.
Earnhardt, whom Busch spun out while both were racing for a victory at Richmond in May, finally admitted this week the 23-year-old rubs him the wrong way.
"We've got a pretty good understanding that we don't really like each other that much," Earnhardt said on Dan Patrick's radio show. "We don't get along that good, and that's just how it is."
About whether he and Busch speak to each other, Earnhardt said, "Me and Kyle say hey to each other, I think, just out of necessity."
Driver-turned-ABC/ESPN-commentator Dale Jarrett says he never had a problem with Busch and thinks he's less of an antagonist on the track than Edwards, one of Busch's two chief rivals for the championship and the driver he got into it with at Bristol two weeks ago.
Jarrett said that while Busch might be the menace in fans' eyes, it's Edwards who "riles up the competitors a little more" on the track.
Those hoping to build a rivalry between Busch and Edwards aren't getting a lot of help from the drivers.
Busch has been sarcastically referring to Edwards as his BFF - best friend forever - but he said there are no hard feelings about their skirmish at Bristol, even though both drivers were placed on probation.
Edwards joked about it during a Chase drivers promotional tour in New York this week. Spotting a glass of water on a table as he was concluding an interview, Edwards told reporters to leave it for Busch, let him take a sip and then tell him he spit in it.
Asked about his relationship with Busch on Friday, though, Edwards blew off the question.
"Honestly, I don't even feel like talking about that," Edwards said. "It's so silly. That was just a race where one guy threw a little fit and it turned into a giant deal."
Burton thinks having polarizing drivers like Busch makes racing more interesting.
"I don't evoke passion from people," he said. "People don't throw stuff at me, but they don't throw stuff to me, either. Kyle Busch, there are some people who want to throw stuff at him and there are people who want to throw stuff at Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, but they have that many people who want to throw stuff to them, too.
"That's what our sport is all about."
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