(Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images)
At Bristol, Kyle was up front contending for the win before a mistake on pit road (a tire getting away from a crew member) cost him the lead and put him at the end of the longest line. He came back from 16th and ended up finishing sixth.
He then cursed at his team, parked in turn three near the tunnel, got out, threw off his helmet and gloves, and left the track, leaving his team wondering what had happened to the car.
Keselowski, according to the article, took a "glass is half-full" approach to finishing 12th that race.
Of course, Keselowski was never in serious contention for anything but possibly a top-10 finish, so taking a "glass is half-full" approach probably didn't take much effort—at least it wasn't as bad as his previous finishes this year.
Busch, on the other hand, looked to have had the race locked up, or at least a top-three finish, so ending up sixth—even after battling back from much deeper in the pack in the last few laps—was no consolation.
Defeat had been snatched from the jaws of victory, and Busch wanted to have nothing more to do with it—he had another race to prepare for the next day, which by the way he won.
What does this all have to do with "true character" and "adversity?" Well, in my opinion, Busch's battling back from 16th to sixth in the closing laps after losing the lead thanks to a tire getting away from a crew member showed an incredible ability to bounce back from adversity.
Keselowski started that race in 15th and finished in 12th. Not to take anything away from Brad, but surviving Bristol and finishing in the top 15 near where he started was an okay day, especially compared to how badly races earlier in the season had finished for him.
The bottom line—how a driver reacts after a race depends a heck of a lot upon not only how he did in the race, but also how well he could have done in the race given his equipment, his crew, etc. for that day. Further, how that race compares to others just previous makes a big difference as well.
Just two weeks earlier, Kyle had crashed out early in the Vegas NNS race and finished 39th after starting fifth—again just one day before winning the Cup race.
The week before that, Kyle not only dominated and won the NNS race in California, but had also become the first driver ever to win two major NASCAR series races in the same day by winning the NCWTS race in dominating fashion as well.
That same race Keselowski started eighth but ended up finishing 27th—the same place he had finished the week before in California.
So looking over the races leading into Nashville, Kyle had finishes of fourth, first, and 39th and looked to be finishing first, or at least in the top three, at Bristol before the pit road violation.
Keselowski, on the other hand, had finishes of 22nd, 27th, and 27th before finishing 12th at Bristol. Given that record, it is easy to understand how he might see that as a "glass half-full" day.
Again I ask, where does any of this show "true character" in the "face of adversity"?
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