Oh, how winning can do so many things to a man. Why must you conflict us, Mr. Victory? With your great feeling and wonderful accomplishment.
You can make you feel things we've never felt before. You can make us believe things that we probably wouldn’t believe. And of course, you make us say things that we may or may not say otherwise.
You see, when things are going well, one is on top of the world, dancing on cloud nine, laughing, smiling and enjoying their success.
However, when things are going bad then a whole new side emerges. The one that gets nasty, ugly, frustrated, and insulting. The one that not only makes the headlines, but makes every journalist's job for a couple days as they all try to be the one to break and complete the story.
Yes, Mr. Victory, you can certainly do many things to a man.
NASCAR’s Kyle Busch and the NFL’s Terrell Owens have been the headline makers for their respective teams in 2008.
Kyle Busch found boat loads of success in 2008 when he joined Joe Gibbs Racing. It took four races, at Atlanta in March, to find victory lane. After that he kept winning and winning and winning. By season's end in November, he had 21 wins between all three of NASCAR’s top Series.
But it wasn’t the winning that Kyle encountered problems with. It was when he started to take on the fans that things went downhill. He was viewed as having a cocky and arrogant attitude, and every time he won, he loved to egg on the fans with the celebrations he thought of.
He would bow; put his hand to his ear encouraging them to make noise and many more. During the pre-race introductions, he was always booed (his mother was even booed at Darlington) and he smiled about it and even stuck his tongue out at fans.
You never knew what he might say when giving interviews, but you almost always knew how we would react and what he was going to say if and when he lost.
He lashed out at everyone and everything around him and never took blame for a mistake or problem that might have occurred.
When involved in a wreck with a teammate during a Nationwide Series race, Busch told the TV viewers that “I just have a teammate who can’t stand to be No. 2,” almost insinuating that he is the No. 1 driver and everyone else should follow him.
When later asked if he thought his teammate had been racing him too hard, Busch replied, “Duh.”
Although it’s fair to say that by the end of the season, it appeared that Busch had matured and clammed down just a little bit. Maybe it was because he was no longer contending for a championship, his ego was batted down.
4 comments Last one added 6 months ago — Leave a Comment
Saraswathi Siriginia 6 months ago
Wonderful job Kelly
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Kelly Crandall 6 months ago
Thank you very much. I appreciate it!
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M Brian Ladner 6 months ago
Well, I think you know my thoughts on the subject. I like my drivers fast, aggressive, arrogant and not ashamed of it. Not that I dislike a well-spoken or more mild-mannered driver like a Jimmie Johnson or a Jeff Burton, but never have I walked away from the TV after one of their interviews fired up yelling, "you tell 'em!!!"
Kyle may not always be right, but he is also not always wrong. And when it comes to causes and effects of happenings on the track, I'll take Kyle's word over most others nine times out of ten. Remember Speed Weeks last year when the two younger Roush truck drivers first tried blaming him for an accident between the two of them during practice? As they interviewed Kyle he plainly said he was behind the two and they were running too close together and one pulled the air off the back of the other through the frontstretch dogleg.
One of them, I believe it was Colin Braun, said Kyle had hit him from behind picking his wheels up and leaving him loose--loose enough to lose it and hit his teammate beside him. A replay from overhead showed Kyle clearly far enough behind them to not have caused it, and it showed the two Roush drivers too close through the dogleg. And that's just one example. Heck, after the Loudon race they found the broken piece of the Heim joint on the track right where he said it broke or fell off. You can't teach someone that kind of awareness.
When you're that good, I can live with the arrogance. Heck, it's not arrogance if you can back it up, if you ask me. As for egging on the audience, there have been so many interviews with him and others (like former teammate Jeff Gordon) who have gone on about how he didn't ask for the role of NASCAR's bad boy. We all know he partially inherited some of it from Kurt--whose once-fiery interviews are now like listening to paint dry--and he knows that the fans do love a show. And he's not afraid to provide it, on or off the track...
As for wanting or having fans, if merchandise sales are any measure, he has easily moved well into the top ten and may now be in the top five. A quick look at http://store.nascar.com shows the following on the front page for quick choice by a customer: 88, 24, 48, 3, 14, 18, 9, 99, ... That tells me he's ranking about sixth--at least on nascar.com. Sounds about right.
As long as he keeps that fire-in-his-belly, even if mellowed a little with age and maturity, I'll be standing in line at his merchandise hauler, flying the Busch banner proudly...
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Kelly Crandall 6 months ago
Thanks Brian.
I understand what you mean and like I said, he seemed that he calmed down a little bit and matured at the end of the season. When he donated money to Sam Ard, I really took another look at him.
Of course, there will still be times when he will upset me, but hey, that's always going to happen in this sport!
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