Thursday, May 8, 2008 | 11:56 a.m.
I may have to eat my words. Earlier this year I commented in this blog that Dale Earnhardt Jr. would win a championship before Kyle Busch. Now I’m having my doubts. Kyle is a missile, sometimes an unguided one, and he’s on a mission to prove Rick Hendrick wrong.
I love Fox’s volume enhancing “crank it up” segment during the races. Imagine if Fox were to use the “crank it up” technique during driver introductions at Darlington when Kyle Busch gets booed. Actually, I might be able to hear those boos here in Vegas with the television on mute. Poor Kyle, he’s going to have to endure that for the entire parade lap.
Don’t get the idea that I’m feeling sorry for Kyle. He contributed heavily to the wreck with Dale Jr., but Kyle isn’t the only one to blame for the rumble at Richmond. That wreck happened because two drivers were competing aggressively for the same piece of real estate. But that doesn’t seem to matter as Kyle is catching all of the heat.
The way fans react to drivers has a lot to do with how the drivers present themselves. Kyle hasn’t won a lot of support with his antics and it doesn’t help that he has a brother who has had some behavior-challenged moments of his own. Let’s face it: No one with the last name of Busch can win against someone with the last name of Earnhardt.
Call me selfish, but I hope the controversy continues. Last week’s race made it easy to come up with cartoon ideas, and that means job security for me. I only wish every race was that exciting.
I had a unique observation this week when the world of presidential politics collided with auto racing. During a photo-op for Hillary Clinton in Indianapolis, I noticed that the Indy-car she was photographed with had its engine cover removed so the words Honda wouldn’t be seen. All that was left of the name were the letters D and A on the air intake portion of the car. Someone must have advised her that when trying to appeal to middle-class voters whose jobs are going overseas, it wouldn’t be a good idea to be photographed in front of a race car emblazoned with the name of a foreign manufacturer’s power plant.
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., listens to driver Sarah Fisher talk about her race car during a campaign event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Ind. Tuesday, May 6, 2008, the day of the Indiana primary election.
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