(Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images)
As I have stated in previous articles, imposing your sense of how someone should act and what their attitude should be in ANY given situation is akin to forcing your sense of right and wrong onto others, who have the right to their own ways of dealing with things—especially things we know little to nothing about.
We don't know the pressures these drivers face, nor do we know the pressures they put on themselves. We don't know their pasts, nor do we know their intent when they do the things they do.
All we know is what we see and hear, and much of that is seen and heard shortly after a driver steps from his car with enough adrenalin still pumping through his veins that it would probably drop most Budweiser Clydesdales dead in their tracks.
Most are either ecstatic or highly disappointed, and how each shows their elation or their frustration is different and can change from race to race.
Which brings me to the article mentioned above, "Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski Have Different Paths, Measures of Success."
By itself, the title seems innocuous enough—in fact it seems almost obvious. Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski do have different paths, both past and present, and both have different measures of success.
Over the past year or more, Kyle Busch has become "expected" to win on average just about one race every week or two across NASCAR's top three series.
In fact, if you include the win in the Gatorade Duel, Kyle did have at least one win in each of the first five race weekends and six in the first seven in 2009 (Gatorade Duel, Fontana NNS, Fontana NCWTS, Las Vegas NSCS, Atlanta NCWTS, Bristol NSCS, Texas NNS).
Brad Keselowski, on the other hand, has a total of two wins in the Nationwide Series, both of them coming last year. For a while, he contended for the Nationwide Championship, moving as high as third in the points behind Cup regulars Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards.
As for their "paths," each has made his own way here. Kyle (and his brother Kurt) worked hard building and repairing their own cars in lower series across the Southwest (and beyond).
There they racked up enough wins and captured enough attention that Kurt was invited to participate in the "Roush Gong Show," from which he landed a ride in the Truck Series, and his career took off from there.
Kyle, seven years Kurt's junior, followed suit in time, racing for Jack Roush at the age of 16 in the Truck series, but finishing only twice in the top-10 out of seven races before being sidelined by rules that made him ineligible to race in the top series until he was 18.
Keselowski's path was a different one. Not having followed his career too closely, I don't know all the details, but I'm sure he also worked hard, and I'll even concede that he didn't have all the opportunities to run with equipment as good as that Busch has had, even though Kyle has been able to do amazing things with trucks from Billy Ballew Motorsports (and for no money, by the way)—things no other driver can seem to do in the No. 51 when Kyle's not in it.
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