(Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images)
First of all, thank God that there are at least a few drivers as good as Kyle or every Sunday would be nearly as predictable as nearly every Friday and Saturday. But do we really want all of our drivers to act the same way?
An example one commenter uses is that of Denny Hamlin and how he responded after the race at Martinsville, where he was bumped out of the way and beaten by Jimmie Johnson after dominating much of the race.
She states, "He needs to take a lesson from his teammate Hamlin after Martinsville...you can still be upset that you lost, but still have some dignity and act mature."
Immediately that makes me think that if Denny didn't have that mindset and did get as upset as Kyle seems to when he loses, maybe Denny would have more wins. The same holds true for nearly every other driver out there.
When it comes to drivers that most put on approximately the same "level" at the moment, we are left with Busch, Johnson, and Edwards. When Jimmie Johnson loses, he keeps his composure, even when he's really not so happy about losing. But of course, when he does that, he is labeled by his detractors as being robotic and emotionless.
The only other driver to win as much or more than Kyle last year was Carl Edwards, and his actions and maturity level leave a lot to be desired as well. At the end of a Nationwide race in Michigan in 2006, Carl was spun into the infield on the last restart by Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Carl objected to NASCAR, and when his objection was not upheld, he not only drove onto pit lane and exchanged words with Junior's crew, he then drove his car back down pit road, onto the track, and hit the side of Junior's car while Junior had his hand out the window. (Sound familiar?)
Moreover, many drivers and others around the garage describe Carl as having one face for the camera, and another for when he believes it is off.
One need only look back at his game of "made you flinch" with Matt Kenseth and his brief altercation with Kevin Harvick last year in the garage to see signs of the other side of "Cousin Carl."
And those were both incidents which happened well after the drivers had had at least enough time to cool off to change and in the case of Kevin Harvick, to wait a week.
My point here is not to knock either Johnson or Edwards but instead to show that different people have different ways of dealing with losing (or having their "feelings hurt" on the track by other drivers). To try to place one generic pre-conceived template out there and state that this is how drivers should act is ludicrous.
For example, the commenter states that she believes the "excuses" for Kyle running away to avoid the media when upset is getting old—a statement very similar to the response from the author that "when he's consistently the only driver acting like this it gets old."
If it's getting old, then like I said above, I'd think you'd expect it by now. I do. Anytime something bad happens to Kyle either by the fault of his team, another driver, his crew, NASCAR, or himself, I stay glued to the set to see what kind of antics he'll engage in this time. Sometimes it's none.
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