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Written by:
Tom Jensen
04/28/2008 - 09:59 AM
Harrisburg, N.C.
Kyle Busch comes to the finish line to win the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos
It’s getting hard to come up with enough superlatives to describe Kyle Busch and the remarkable year he’s having.
Busch came from a lap down Sunday to win the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, a victory that made him a multiple-race winner in all three of NASCAR’s top series. It’s only April and already The Shrub has two victories each in the Sprint Cup and Craftsman Truck Series and three in the Nationwide Series.
And Busch has been an equal-opportunity winner, too. He’s triumphed on a restrictor-plate track, a road course, a short track and both 1.5-mile and 2-mile intermediate tracks. On Sunday, he came from a lap down to take the victory and move closer to the top of the points lead.
But what might be most impressive of all, is Busch won at a track where historically, he’s been awful: In six previous Cup starts at the 2.66-mile Alabama oval, Busch finished 11th once and 33rd or worse the other five times.
Those in the know will tell you that Busch is supremely motivated this season, driven to prove that Rick Hendrick made a mistake when he released him last season to make room for Dale Earnhardt Jr. And there’s no question Busch is a better fit at Joe Gibbs Racing, where extreme personalities not only are tolerated, they are encouraged.
“That's just been the greatest satisfaction,
The big question, of course, is how long this hot streak lasts. Busch has an ambitious schedule of Nationwide and NCTS races and there’s a danger that he could spread himself too thin or, worse yet, injure himself in a crash in a lower series as teammate Tony Stewart did two years at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Speaking of Stewart, the two-time NASCAR champion dropped a bombshell last week when he announced that he was fielding offers for 2010 and beyond, when his current contract with JGR expires.
Tony being Tony, he simultaneously insisted nothing was wrong at JGR and sounded very much like a man who already had one foot well out the door as he looked to get back to a Chevrolet team. Lost in all the Stewart hype, though, was the fact that he is under contract through the end of 2009 and JGR has no intention whatsoever of letting him out of his deal early, especially since 2009 is also the final year of Home Depot’s sponsorship of the team.
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