Kyle Busch—The "Rowdy" King of the Road Race

The NASCAR road courses always bring into discussion just who the best road racer in NASCAR is. Immediately, the first two names to roll off of the tongue are Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart (with a combined 15 wins on the tracks that go right and left).

From there, the attention usually shifts the “ringers” (Ron Fellows and Boris Said) or even to “in-series ringers” (Robby Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya).

However, no one in that group has won a road race this year. It seems that NASCAR has a new road course ace in town—and his name is Kyle Busch.

Don’t believe me? Well, look at the Nationwide Series race in Mexico City first. Starting sixth, he hung around the front for much of the race, but in the end had to hold off established road courses specialists Marco Ambrose and Scott Pruett. Obviously, he did, and won his first road race of the season.

From there, we move to scenic Sonoma road course. Starting 30th, Busch used some pit strategy to get up front. From there, he simply put his car on cruise control—he controlled the race in every aspect, was never challenged, and drove off into the sunset.

He may have appeared sparingly on television, but that was because there was never anything new to report. Rowdy ran away with that one.

From there, the next road race ran was the Nationwide Series race this weekend in Watkins Glen (he skipped last weekend’s rain soaked Montreal race). A win wasn’t in the cards, but a second place isn’t something to cry about. And that’s just where he finished: second (even after contact and spin with Jeff Burton).

Finally, look at Sunday’s Sprint Cup race. A cancelled qualifying session meant that the field was set by owner points, giving pole to The Wild Thing.

At first, it looked to this wasn’t his race: Dale Earnhardt Jr. passed him on lap two, and shot off to lead the race until after the first round of pit stops. Guess who was leading after that aforementioned pit cycle? Yep, it was Mr. Busch.

From there, like Sonoma, he set his car on cruise control, had the race in his grasp at all times, and cruised to his eighth victory of the year.

Now, let’s do the math. In four road races this year (combined Sprint Cup and Nation Series races) Kyle Busch has three wins and one second place, giving him an average finish of 1.25. Yes, that’s impressive.

Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, despite still running competitively on the road courses, have not been running as well.

Gordon's last win on a road course was in 2006, which came two years after his his most recent one. While Stewart won at Watkins Glen just last year, he did so because Gordon made a mistake and spun with two laps left.

They remain near the top on the list of NASCAR's best road racer, but I believe they've been surpassed by "The Wild Thing".

His win on Sunday assures Busch of the top seed (and likely a nice cushion over his rivals) when the Chase starts in Loudon, New Hampshire.

Sure, Busch has been impressive on the road courses (and every other type of track) this year. However, his win on Sunday also delivered a definitive message: His, and the team’s, performances over the past two races brought into question how long Busch and the 18 team could hold the top spot in the standings.

Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick team look like they have the past two seasons (both of which saw them win the championship) and Carl Edwards looks poised to mount his first title charge since 2005. It appeared Busch was slipping and these two would, potentially, steal his glory.

However, Sunday showed that Busch is, contrary to those who thought otherwise, still the man to beat this year. While I do wonder how he’ll do in his first serious chase for a championship (even though he made The Chase the last two seasons, he was never contender to win a championship), to think that he won’t have say in is simply erroneous.

Busch, along with being NASCAR’s newest king of the road, is still the biggest fish in this year’s Sprint Cup Series ocean.