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“We just had some bad luck over the first five races of the Chase, so we haven’t been as consistent...” - Kyle Busch (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images Photo) » More Photos
Regardless of what fans think of Kyle Busch, he doesn’t care. And that’s one of the key reasons he’s won eight NASCAR Sprint Cup races this season and has a 242-point lead over Carl Edwards heading into Sunday’s 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Busch, who is scheduled to appear live on SPEED’s NASCAR RaceDay Sunday morning, has a laser-like focus on what happens on the racetrack. What happens in the court of public opinion he doesn’t care one whit about, which has been good for his on-track success. He’s blissfully free of worrying about anything other than going fast.
Some drivers carefully craft their public images, hiring public relations agencies to meticulously mold and sculpt how they are viewed by fans. Busch’s own brother, Kurt, once NASCAR’s enfant terrible, himself went through an extreme image makeover — including minor cosmetic surgery — when he joined the extremely image-conscious Penske Racing organization in 2006.
But Kyle Busch will have none of that, at least at this point in his career. Like the Oakland Raiders of old, Kyle’s motto could easily be, “Just win, baby.” He’s only here for one thing and that’s to put his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in victory lane. He is a racer’s racer in the purest sense of the world.
He knows that. His team knows that. His fellow racers know that. The fans and the media? Not so much.
One of the amusing rituals of this NASCAR season occurs each week, when Busch does his mandated group media interview. There’s always someone who asks the 23-year-old driver about how he feels about being NASCAR’s villain, or how the crowd reacted to him the previous week. And the answer is always pretty much the same.
Asked Friday at Michigan International Speedway if he was motivated by fans booing, Busch said, “Nah. You just run the same way. I’ve been booed since I got in this sport, so it hasn’t really changed much.”
As for playing the bad guy in the public eye, he didn’t get too fired up about that, either. “It’s fun,” Busch said. “You’ve got to have fun. You’ve got to have a good time
But if Busch’s prodigious talents are misunderstood publicly, his peers understand his talent and the kind of season he’s put together. “I tell you last week impressed the heck out of me,” Jeff Gordon said of Busch’s victory at the Watkins Glen International road course. “ … Last week he beat one of the best there is out there in Tony (Stewart). He was solid all day long. That shows me what kind of team they have and what kind of driver Kyle is.”
“I have worked with him as a teammate and have always know that he is a special, special talent,” added Jimmie Johnson. “I told him a couple of years ago ‘Once you figure out how to win, you aren’t going to stop, but you have to stop knocking the right sides off you cars and crashing in practice and taking unnecessary risks.’ He has figured that out this year and he has been on fire. I feel the same thing about championship form. Once he understands how to win a championship, he is going to be tough to beat each and every year.”
Kyle Busch is scheduled to appear live on SPEED’s NASCAR RaceDay, which begins at 11 a.m. Sunday from Michigan International Speedway.
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
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