The Earnhardt Legacy, The Story Goes On...

At the onset of the 2006 NASCAR racing season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had become one of the most recognized people in America. He was and remains the face of NASCAR. He was a pitch man for all kinds of products. His name and likeness alone were worth millions of dollars and yet there were rumors that all wasn’t well at Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated (DEI) where he was the top driver.

By the end of the 2006 racing season young Dale had been to victory lane 17 times as a Cup driver. He had a 3rd place finish in the Cup standings in 2003 and ran the best season of his career during 2004. He appeared poised to make a final push for the title. In 2005 things went backwards and three different crew chiefs were used on the Budweiser car, the last being Dale’s Cousin Tony Eury Jr. With Tony on the box the team got it turned around late, but finished 19th and out of the Chase. A concerted effort in 2006 saw Dale Jr. back in the Chase but he finished up a disappointing 5th at the end.

While Junior and the number 8 race team struggled, DEI, under the total control of Teresa Earnhardt, was pulling down more money than ever before. It was estimated that the company was averaging an annual income between $60 and $80 million. Half of this revenue came from the sales of Dale Earnhardt merchandise and licensing. The other half was being generated by the DEI racing teams and related business operations. In what many believe was a pure and simple tax avoidance move, Dale Sr. left DEI to Teresa alone. Whether anything was ever said that would indicate that the children should share in the company’s ownership at a later date is unknown.

JR Motorsports came into being in 1998 as a management company overseeing the licensing and merchandising of Dale Earnhardt Junior products. Junior’s success in the Busch series, winning back to back championships in 1998-99, pushed this venture’s income ever upward. Shortly after the tragedy at Daytona in 2001, Junior made a change at JR Motorsports that would have far reaching ramifications when he agreed with his sister Kelley and made her President and General Manager as well as giving her fifty percent ownership. Under her guidance, JR Motorsports became a full-fledged racing business when it fielded a late model stock car team in 2002. Just like his father before him, Junior had become a race team owner while personally driving for someone else. JR Motorsports continued to evolve under Kelley’s management. In 2003 she negotiated the first driving contract her brother ever had with DEI. In the past he’d just worked on a handshake. Teresa pushed for a lifetime driving contract but that wasn’t going to happen. The two parties agreed to a 5 year deal that would run out at the end of 2007. In 2006 plans were laid to put a Busch series team, sponsored by the U.S. Navy, into full-time operation along with three late model stock car teams. JR Motorsports was growing.

As DEI’s revenues skyrocketed Teresa Earnhardt remained in the background. She hired others to run the various businesses. At first her absence was deemed understandable, but as time went by, these unusual circumstances for a high-profile NASCAR race team owner led to questions being raised by the people making things happen in the shops and at the track. It was no secret that Kelley and Dale Jr. weren’t always on the best of terms with their step-mother anyway, but the lack of winning a Cup title and Teresa’s lack of leadership in the company must have led them to seek an ownership share. Then, in December of 2006, Teresa granted an interview to the Wall Street Journal in which she questioned Dale Jr.’s maturity and commitment to winning. Although Jr. remained publicly civil toward Teresa, a break in their business relationship had been set in motion. Jr. let it be known that he wanted controlling interest in DEI. There were negotiations between Kelley, Dale Jr. and Teresa’s president of global operations for Dale Earnhardt Inc., Max Siegel that carried on through early 2007, but the bottom line was the fact that Teresa held most of the cards. She was not going to relinquish control of DEI.

May 11, 2007 Kelley and Dale Jr. sat in front of a bank of media types and announced that Dale Jr. would become a free agent at the end of the 2007 racing season. Jr. was 32 years old at the time and he made it clear that was how old his father was when he made his last career move and joined up with Richard Childress. Next came the fiasco over Jr. keeping the number 8. Both his father and grandfather had raced that number, but Teresa wouldn’t budge on that either.

Just over a month after the end of Jr.’s business relationship with DEI was known, Dale Jr. announced that beginning in 2008 he would be driving for Hendrick Motorsports (HMS). So out of what many thought was a family breakup, Dale Jr. and Kelley were in effect moving from their father’s side of the family to their mother’s. Brenda Gee Jackson’s father was a well-known body man who worked for Rick Hendrick’s father at the beginning of HMS. Brenda’s brothers were connected to HMS as well. Beyond the family connections, another benefit was in the offing on a much more personal level. Rick had lost his son Ricky in a plane crash three years earlier. Jr. needed a father figure and Rick could embrace a new son…

In time it was also announced that JR Motorsports and HMS had formed a partnership with neither losing their business identity. The new team would race in the Busch/Nationwide Series. Everything looked great!

On the other hand, DEI without their top driver was left without a rudder. By the end of the 2008 season the company for all intents and purposes was out of fielding race teams as it merged its driving operations into Chip Ganassi Racing to form Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. Although Earnhardt was the lead name, it was understood that Ganassi and his people would run the show. DEI was left with memorabilia sales and putting together tributes to Dale Earnhardt's name. What Teresa was willing to do spoke volumes about her relationship with Kelley and Dale Jr.

Driving for the top team in NASCAR, surrounded by the best drivers, technical engineers and top pit personnel, everyone was sure Dale would positively respond, but midway through the third year of their arrangement in 2010 things just haven’t meshed. Tony Eury Jr. had come along with Dale as his crew chief from DEI, but that got changed halfway through the 2009 season and still the wins weren’t coming. Jr. has had his moments with HMS, but there’s been no consistency, all while Junior Nation grows more and more restless.

Since Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s death NASCAR has been in the throes of a slow decline. Track attendance has gone down along with television ratings. Sponsors began backing away and then the current economic woes hit. In a “town hall” meeting in which NASCAR officials asked the team owners and drivers to try and think of things that might help right the sport’s problems, one well-known driver piped up, “You've got to make the most popular driver in the sport competitive”. And all eyes turned toward Dale Earnhardt Jr. The pressure to succeed must be tremendous.

Last April an announcement was made in which JR Motorsports’ owners, Dale Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt, Richard Childress Racing’s (RCR) owner Richard Childress and the owner of Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Teresa Earnhardt all came together. They announced that Jr. would be driving a Chevrolet Impala sponsored by Wrangler Jeans and adorned with the famous number 3 on loan from RCR to honor Dale Earnhardt and his induction with the inaugural class into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The car will be driven in the Nationwide Series’ Subway Jalapeno 250 event at Daytona International Speedway on this Friday night, July 2nd.

Disappointing to many Earnhardt fans, Jr. was quoted in a recent ESPN interview, "I just want to go to the racetrack and run it once before I retire, and this will probably be it. After this, I'll probably never drive a car with a 3 on it again. I can pretty much say I'm 99 percent sure that will never happen again."

Has Dale Earnhardt Jr. ever raced just for the joy of it? It seems he’s always been trying to please everyone but himself. Maybe this ride will do it.

Take a look at Jr. truly enjoying himself…


If I could personally speak to the man I think I’d tell him to forget everything else. Just go out Friday night and drive like a demon… Earnhardt style.

This story is by no means over. A fourth generation of Earnhardts are coming along and who knows, maybe one of them will again make sweet music in a race car...

Kerry, Kelley, Taylor, Teresa and Dale Jr.

at the NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductions

Some of the many resources used to make this trilogy possible:
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/news/story?id=5331539
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/nascar/2010-04-29-dale-earnhardt-jr-wrangler-no-3_N.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Earnhardt,_Jr.
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=2&id=2902693
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=2&id=2866102
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=2&id=2698958
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=2&id=2724131
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=240241&FS=NASCAR*
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/26/AR2007052601283.html
http://www.nascar.com/2006/news/opinion/01/26/dearnhardtjr_three/index.html
http://detnews.com/article/20100508/SPORTS03/5080362/Dale-Earnhardt-Jr.-has-a-bad-day-at-track
http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2010/03/25/hendrick-motorsports-dale-earnhardt-jr-top-forbes-list/
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/sports/othersports/11nascar.html?_r=1&fta=y
http://www.sbnation.com/2010/5/14/1472246/dale-earnhardt-jr-dover-nascar-2010
http://www.earnhardtnation.com/ralph_earnhardt.html
http://www.oceansiderotary.org/stockcarhalloffame/R_Earnhardt.html
http://blk3gm.tripod.com/intimidator.html
http://blk3gm.tripod.com/photo/photoearnfamily.html

The Earnhardt Legacy

Following the 2000 racing year Dale Earnhardt must have finally felt a measure of peace. After 18 years, his third marriage had turned out to be the one to last. Out of this marriage he and wife Teresa had a daughter, Taylor, who by this time was still in
those wondrous, joy filled pre-teen years. Dale had found and nurtured a relationship with his older son Kerry and for the first time he was growing close to Dale Jr. Of Dale’s four children, it was daughter Kelley that he just couldn’t get next to. She was once divorced, ready to marry for a second time and Dale didn’t care for the choices she was making. A wedge had been driven between the two who barely spoke to one another. If Dale had just taken a deep breath and stood back to look at how his oldest daughter was turning out he might have realized that of all his children, she was the one most like him. When Dale’s friends saw Kerry, Dale Jr. and Kelley drive in short track competitions in the early 1990’s they told him that it was Kelley’s style that most closely resembled her father’s. She was a fierce competitor that hated to lose. In retrospect, Kelley wondered if she could have been a top driver, but without her dad’s support, she and the rest of us will never know. Dale Sr. may have been right; the timing for a woman driver in NASCAR wasn’t good at that time. (It’s something Kelley has since thought about while getting to know Danica Patrick.) Kelley had a hard time accepting her father’s advice just like Dale Sr. did with his father. And hadn’t Dale been married more than once at an early age just like Kelley was ready to do? In the years to come, Kelley’s many mannerisms including the toughness she inherited from her father will become more and more apparent. Those inherited Earnhardt qualities will serve her well.

It was back in 1982 when Kelley, ten years old at the time, and young Dale, at eight, moved from their mother’s care to live with Dale and Teresa.

During those formative years, Kelley and young Dale were constantly left in the care of others while their famous father took his young wife and plied his trade around the country. Beyond hardly being home, Dale, just like his father before him, was a demanding man, not outwardly encouraging or affectionate. This wore on his youngest son. When his father was around, Junior would pull stunts, things he knew he shouldn’t have done, just to get his dad’s attention. When he was successful he got what he was after, for all the wrong reasons. Kelley acted as the shield between her father and brother, many times ending up comforting Junior when things went badly. Out of this Kelley and Junior formed a bond that will probably last the rest of their lives.

Dale’s business interests were doing well. Beyond the new car dealership and other investments, Dale and Teresa’s race teams with Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated (DEI) were enjoying great success. Dale Jr. had just completed his first full season of Cup driving in the red number 8 Budweiser Chevrolet. DEI also ran the number 1 car in Cup racing driven by Steve Park who finished the season 11th in the point standings. The company operated one Busch Series car in 2000. The number 15 driven by Ron Hornaday placed 8th in Busch Series standings. The 15 team was being prepared to transition into the Cup Series for the 2001 season.

As far as Dale’s racing was concerned, he was still driving for long-time friend and owner Richard Childress and finding victory lane. He’d just completed a season in which he came in second in the Cup standings for the second time since winning his 7th Championship. He had won the most single season earnings of his career at nearly $5 million. Entering his 27th season of Cup racing, Dale planned to run another full schedule in 2001, still looking for that elusive 8th Cup Championship that would set him apart from all other NASCAR drivers.

The business of NASCAR had dramatically changed since Dale entered the “The Show” in 1975. An excellent illustration of this is made just by looking at the earnings differences. In 1979 Richard Petty won his 7th and final Cup Championship. He earned the highest payout to date by any driver for a single season, accumulating $560,000. Fifteen years later in 1994, Dale Earnhardt tied Petty’s record with his 7th Cup Title and earned just over $3.3 million or nearly six times as much, but that was only part of the picture. NASCAR, being the grand champion of all sports when it comes to sponsorship and endorsement money, saw revenue dollars grow by leaps and bounds in those facets of the business. With national television coverage becoming the norm, pumping large sums of money into the mix, fan popularity had exploded. Everybody wanted a piece of the action and the “Intimidator” played a huge role in all of that.

While driving Cup cars, Dale Earnhardt was never voted the most popular driver by his peers. His slashing, bumping, grinding, hate to lose style did nothing to endear him to his competitors, but racing fans ate it up. Dale Earnhardt during the 1990’s was the straw that stirred NASCAR’s drink. In racing fans’ eyes, he became the most popular driver the sport had ever seen. He had legions of followers. People upon meeting Dale for the first time merely stood in awe of his presence. It was in this type of environment that Dale Earnhardt went to NASCAR’s premier event, the Daytona 500, and strapped himself into the black number 3, February 18, 2001.

On the last lap of the last race Dale Earnhardt would ever run, he watched as two of his own DEI cars were running in first and second position while he ran in third without a chance of catching either.

The early years of Dale Earnhardt’s racing career have been well chronicled. How he struggled just to make grocery money while keeping his cars running, trying to impress the right people until that first good break finally came his way and how his personal relationships suffered. Once he’d made it, Dale was known to quietly help out other less fortunate drivers struggling with the same problems he’d faced. And so it was truly fitting that leading late in the 2001 Daytona 500 was a DEI car being driven by a man to whom Dale had given another chance, long-time also ran Michael Waltrip driving the number 15 NAPA Chevrolet. Ironically, Michael’s older brother Darrell Waltrip was one of Dale’s fiercest competitors early in his Cup racing career. In fact many would say the bad blood between Dale and Darrell had never really gone away, yet Dale had helped out Michael and here he was, making the most of Dale’s generosity. The second place DEI car was the red Budweiser number 8 driven by Dale’s son and namesake, Ralph Dale Earnhardt, Junior. Dale must have had a smile on his face watching those two dig for the finish line as he entered turn four.

Since the days when people first began racing motorized vehicles there has always been the chance of wrecking. Along with that came the possibility that the drivers could be injured or worse. Since its inception, NASCAR has been forced to suffer through the loss of too many drivers. The people involved in the sport know death as a very likely reality that no one is immune to. The unspoken thought of it is always there in the back of everyone’s mind. Nobody knows when it will strike.

On one of auto racing’s biggest stages, one of auto racing’s most famous drivers was lost. Upon hearing the news of Dale Earnhardt’s demise, the whole country was stunned. An American Icon had been instantly taken from us. The NASCAR family, that just nine months earlier had lost young Adam Petty, was shaken to its very core.

This has been the second of a three part series...

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and The Earnhardt Family Legacy

Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

What comes to mind when you see that name?

I’m willing to wager that ten years ago the immediate response among long-time NASCAR fans would have overwhelmingly been “He’s Dale Earnhardt’s son, the heir apparent.”

Now, take a step back and try to imagine what those high expectations meant. Unless your father was a man driven to be the very best at what he did, I doubt you can really relate.

If you take one more step back, the question then becomes, “What drove Dale Sr. to achieve greatness?”

Dale Earnhardt was one of those rare people who followed in a legendary father’s footsteps and exceeded what his father had accomplished.

Ralph Earnhardt, limited as he was by family obligations that he readily accepted,
was, as a consequence, hampered throughout his racing career by minimal funding. He still made it while racing the majority of the time on local tracks so he could be home at night. In fact, Ralph Earnhardt won over 350 Sportsman, NASCAR modified and Grand National series events in a 23 year racing career that led to two different auto racing Hall of Fame enshrinements.

Those familiar with the Earnhardt’s family history are aware that when Dale, Ralph and Martha’s oldest of five children, let it be known he wanted to drive race cars too, his father and mother were against it. They knew the hardships his father's passion for racing had placed on the family. They didn’t want that kind of life for Dale. The oldest Earnhardt son adored his father. He had no use for school and only wanted what his parents advised against. This created a rift that if anything, only stoked the fire in Dale’s belly to succeed in racing. Dale didn’t heed his parent’s wishes. He dropped out of high school without graduating and went ahead trying to make auto racing his life.

Dale Earnhardt not only inherited his father’s passion for auto racing, he was also bestowed with Ralph Earnhardt’s will to win. Ned Jarrett is quoted as saying, “Ralph Earnhardt was absolutely the toughest race driver I ever raced against. On the dirt or asphalt short track in Sportsman competition, you went to the track you knew he was the man to beat.”

While Dale and his second wife struggled to make ends meet, he lost his father when he succumbed to a heart attack at 45 years of age. Dale was but 22.

By the time Dale Earnhardt had clawed his way to the top, winning 7 Cup Championships in the process; he was into his third marriage, had fathered four children, missed out on raising his oldest son, Kerry, and was the most recognized figure in auto racing. His popularity transcended NASCAR. He became the second most recognized person in all of sport behind basketball legend Michael Jordan. He was so recognized that people who knew little to nothing of auto racing could tell you Dale Earnhardt drove the black number 3 in NASCAR.

Like his parents before him, Dale had problems raising his younger son and namesake; Dale Jr. Just like his father, Junior had trouble achieving good grades in school. By this time, Dale Sr., who knew how important a good education was after dropping out himself, became adamant about Junior doing well. It got to the point that for a period of time, Junior was shipped off to a military school. Once young Earnhardt was done with his education he had spent two years in college and earned an automotive degree. He was happy to work in the shop at his father’s Chevy dealership claiming the title of the fastest oil change man in the garage. It’s interesting that when responding to an interviewer, Junior’s sister Kelley stated she would never have guessed that Junior was destined to become a race driver. She said, “He spent a lot of time playing with Matchbox cars, but he was not aggressive ... and didn't take risks."

Evidently Junior was never discouraged by his father when it came to racing and he eventually got involved at 17 years of age. One thing led to another as he worked his way up from the bottom, buying his cars, earning his racing money at the Chevy dealership and trying to entice sponsors, mostly on his own, just as his dad had done. By 24 Junior had made a reputation as a winner and became known as “Little E”.

"I don't really think about that (carrying on the family racing name)," Earnhardt Jr. said in an interview after winning his first Busch Grand National event, the Coca Cola 300 at Texas Motor Speedway in 1998. "I'm just so proud of my family and real proud to be involved with my father in racing and be a driver for him. It's a good relationship we have. Winning with this team in front of my father ... It's important to me. I'm proud of my father and grandfather and what they've done. I'm just glad I'm able to be successful at it, too."

At the end of 1999 he’d won back to back Busch Series Championships and was ready for the show. The next year Junior became a full-time Cup driver, winning two races, the NASCAR All-Star race (the only rookie to do so) and narrowly missing out on Rookie of the Year honors falling just short of Matt Kenseth.

All was right with the world…

The first of a three-part series.

Resources:
http://www.earnhardtnation.com/ralph_earnhardt.html
http://www.oceansiderotary.org/stockcarhalloffame/R_Earnhardt.htm
http://blk3gm.tripod.com/intimidator.htm
http://blk3gm.tripod.com/photo/photoearnfamily.htm

The Trials and Tribulations of Being a Young Gun

Although the first requirement to making the “Big Show” for young drivers in NASCAR remains being excellent at their craft, it’s simply not enough. Young drivers must turn heads and in order to do that they must be special. Special to the point that beyond winning and winning consistently in whatever racing venues they spring from, they must also exude confidence, they’ve got to have charisma, they must possess good looks and have a demeanor that compels people to see their potential not only as drivers, but also as salespeople. It should not come as a surprise that top driver development programs spend almost as much time on teaching young drivers how to hone a favorable public persona and influence sponsors as they do in developing driving skills. Giving a driver a shot to perform at the highest levels of auto racing ultimately amounts to meeting or exceeding several criteria. It’s a tall order to fill, an order that only a handful of drivers can meet.

NASCAR’s Sprint Cup drivers represent the best of the best. It’s one of the most exclusive clubs in professional sports. There are only a few chances for young drivers to make the show. Millions of dollars are on the line. The process race team owners use to obtain acceptable new drivers has evolved because of the huge amount of money they put at risk. For the rare few young drivers who end up performing in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Championship races, there remains even more to learn.

With only 40 to 50 slots available in Cup racing, the competition for a ride is fierce. Young, starry eyed drivers represent a threat to the established drivers and they will fight for all they’re worth, not only to hold onto the rides they have, but also to hold the threatening young drivers back. The old dogs have already gone through the school of hard knocks. They have learned all the tricks and some evidently won’t hesitate to use them. Call it a learning curve or simply reality, but young drivers are faced with either getting through this final learning process in a hurry or losing out to the next group of young drivers unabashedly chomping at the bit to get their chance.

A huge part of this final learning process concerns gaining the respect of the other drivers. The unwritten rule young drivers must first follow has to do with the showing of respect to the other, more established drivers both on and off the track. By doing this they gain a measure of respect in return but there’s a point where the doling out of respect must stop. It is that point where the young drivers begin being perceived as “soft” or “easy”. It’s a dilemma that must be solved and the only way to solve it is by not being afraid to “mix it up”. They can’t allow themselves to be pushed around. When they figure that out and begin confronting those that would push them out of the way, then they face the wrath of not only those drivers they push back against, but also of the wrath of the drivers' fans. They risk being labeled with all sorts of derogatory names as a result, but at the same time they once again continue to earn respect, although some of it is grudgingly given. It then becomes obvious to the other, more established drivers that this young one can’t be taken advantage of. The education is complete, they're finally accepted as full-fledged members of the club.

The question that comes to my mind is; how long does it take to make or break young drivers trying to prove themselves worthy to be in the show? Considering the fact that it costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000,000 to run a NASCAR Cup team for one season, young drivers don’t have much time. They better start doing special things quickly or they’ll be gone.

Here’s a look at two of the most promising young guns currently driving Sprint Cup cars:

Brad Keselowski –

2010 is Brad’s first full season of Sprint Cup racing. In 31 starts he has one win and three DNF’s. Brad is currently in 24th place in the Chase, 645 points behind Kevin Harvick and 268 points behind Clint Boyer in 12th place. He’s on track to earn just under $5,000,000 on the 2010 season.

Of Brad’s DNF’s one was at Atlanta last March…



I guess that’s just racin’, huh Carl?

Joey Logano –

In his second full season of Sprint Cup racing Logano has one win and four DNF’s. Joey is currently in 17th place in the Chase, 478 points behind Kevin Harvick and 101 points behind Clint Boyer in 12th place. Logano is headed toward making around $600,000 over the key $5,000,000 mark.

Just last week Joey was knocked from 5th to 30th late in the Pocono 500 by points leader Harvick, the second time this season the two have mixed it up and for the first time young Logano had enough…



Another case of just racin’? You be the judge…

It will be interesting to see if Danica Patrick will get a shot at Sprint Cup racing and if she does, how she and the boys will get along. I don’t think she’ll get a pass, do you?

What's Friday? Video Day!

A video bridge from the last Cup race to the next.

How's the old song go? You've got your troubles, I've got mine...

Enjoy!

Kurt fights for the Longest Day Race!


Kurt's post race interview...


Points leader Kevin Harvick interview!


Last spring's Pocono 500 winner, Tony Stewart!


And last but not least, Relative newcomer Brad Keselowski on being the new guy hoping for some respect... (Sound familiar?)



So long, Digger



It's TNT time!

Why’s Everybody Always Pickin’ On Me?

Remember that line, “Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me?” from the old song “Charlie Brown” by The Coasters? I wonder if Kyle Busch has ever heard it. If he has, then I have to wonder if he catches himself singing it when nobody’s around. It certainly would be appropriate if he does.

Who’s going to be down on Kyle this week? It’s like the blue plate special or the soup de jour at your local diner, it’s always changing. You got a problem with Kyle Busch? The line forms to the left and don’t forget to take a number!

Last Thursday a reporter, Tania Ganguli with the Orlando Sentinel, published the following comment from Jeff Burton: “Kyle, in my view, has never been a guy that wrecks other people. Honestly, he puts himself in some situations where you’re thinking, ‘I don’t know if he’s going to come out of that.’ On restarts he’s real aggressive, but I’ve never felt that Kyle was a guy that I looked at and said, ‘that dude takes a lot of people out.”

So what happens two days later at the end of the Coca Cola 600? You got it; Jeff Burton suddenly has an issue with Kyle and it’s all over the racing media.

In the same Orlando Sentinel article mentioned above, Mark Martin is quoted speaking of Kyle Busch: “He’s never breached my space on the race track. I haven’t had a lot of conversation with Kyle, but he is incredibly respectful although he may have done some things and had some actions that may have turned some people off.”

Is Martin next up on the “I’ve got a problem with Kyle Busch carousel”?

Okay, so let’s take a look at what’s perceived to be the upfront problem; Kyle Busch’s driving style. The moniker that’s been hung on Kyle is that “He’s just too aggressive.” We hear it over and over again, but is it really the problem?

You know there are as many driving styles as there are drivers. The prime means of measurement here is who wins, but it goes a lot deeper than that.

The story goes that when Kyle was just a little boy growing up in Las Vegas, he had to watch as his father doted on his seven years older brother Kurt. Dad was teaching the older son to become a race car driver. Understandably, Kyle wanted his father’s attention too. He became so persistent about wanting to learn to drive that, at the tender age of six, Kyle’s dad relented and allowed him to run a go-kart around the neighborhood where they lived. Since Kyle was too short to reach the pedals, dear ole’ dad set the kart’s engine to run at full throttle. He’d settle Kyle in the kart, start it up and turn him loose. Can you imagine a six year old running up and down the street in a go-kart going wide open? That was Kyle’s first learning experience behind the wheel. It was all out and (remember this) without brakes!

While Kurt began his organized racing career, Kyle’s need to be a part of the team led him to eventually become a member of his brother’s pit crew. He learned mechanics and by the age of 10 Kyle served as his brother’s crew chief. The younger Busch learned the racing business from the ground up, driven to excel while playing second fiddle to his older brother. By the time Kyle was 12 years of age, old man Busch realized he had two sons that were going to do big things as race drivers. At 13, Kyle was racing in The Legends series races in the “Bullring” also known as Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In three seasons he won 65 races and two track championships! At 16 years of age in 2001, Kyle drove in six events on the NASCAR Truck Series circuit but with cigarette sponsorship in big time racing, the rules were changed in 2002. A driver in NASCAR events, from that time forward, had to be at least 18 years old. So, in 2003, Kyle was back in NASCAR running in seven events in the then Busch Series. One year later Kyle made it all the way to the pinnacle in NASCAR racing, driving in six Cup events. Another year and Kyle was a full-time Cup driver.

I wanted to give a short rundown on how Kyle got to the “Big Time” to better illustrate the point about driving style.

In an article entitled “The art of driving: How NASCAR's stars use different styles to reach victory lane” written by Jeff Gluck, the author interviewed Jimmie Johnson. Johnson remembered looking at lap data in 2006, comparing how the various drivers with Hendrick Motorsports ran practice laps. It amazed JJ that his teammate, Kyle Busch, wasn’t using his brakes for anything other than to slow the car when entering the pits. It blew Johnson’s mind. He went on to describe Jeff Gordon’s driving style through the turns as being hard braking and yanking on the wheel. Then the author described JJ’s style entering the turns as a combination of brake and throttle, never giving up totally on the throttle so it’s easier to get back to full-throttle coming out of the turn. All three driving styles are vastly different and yet all are successful.

Now, remember how Kyle was first introduced to driving? No brakes.

Later in the same article Jeff Gordon makes the comment, “It’s just how our brains work, its how our motor skills work.”

It’s like everybody’s wired differently so they drive differently and a lot of it has to do with a driver’s early experiences. Some come from a NASCAR family background, others come from dirt track racing and still others come from open-wheel Indy and Formula racing, all different styles leading them to NASCAR Cup racing.

There has been another area that has drawn fire from Kyle’s competitor’s, the media and fans; it concerns Kyle’s psyche. He’s said to have an “attitude”. What exactly does that mean?

In my book, “attitude” when it comes to Kyle Busch means that he hates losing and he REALLY hates losing when he thinks the loss was caused by somebody else. It’s how Kyle responds. In the past he hasn’t been worried about what people think. He has struck out at other drivers and/or his pit crew, whoever he perceived to be standing between him and the winner’s circle. He’s been called childish, a cry baby, a menace, dangerous, ad nausea. All I’ve got to say is it works for him. It’s the old “me against the world”, “we’re going to the mattresses” response to adversity.

There has been a lot of discussion about the will to win. Some drivers appear to have a huge will to win while others simply don’t seem to be motivated.

In the final analysis, Kyle Busch does have an aggressive style of driving. It’s a style that doesn’t work well in traffic and maybe that’s why we see him trying to stay out front most of the time. And, I have to agree, Kyle has an “attitude”. He MUST win, and isn’t that the name of the game? If he ever becomes satisfied to simply be part of the club, trying to stay out of everyone’s way, happy to finish in 20th place race in and race out, consequently making the other driver’s fans happy, NASCAR will lose out. Given today’s economy, NASCAR doesn’t need to lose out.

Let’s face it, NASCAR is set up to allow the driver’s to bump and grind. They have divorced ultimate speed in favor of safe racing cars, all with a mindful eye on what has made their version of auto racing one of the most popular sports in the world, the bumping, grinding, get out of my way racing. Racing that is sure to spawn heated rivalries. Kyle Busch is a product of this system!

So, for many of you, here is your worst nightmare!

Resources: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-05-28/sports/os-nascar-charlotte-news-20100528_1_kyle-busch-read-tania-ganguli-nascar-nationwide

http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/print/The_art_of_driving_How_NASCARs_stars_use_different_styles_to_reach_victory_lane.html