Is Kyle Busch the Villain that NASCAR is Looking For?

Sporting events are not only meant to be entertaining, but they are also meant to be exciting as well.

So when you take the time to think about what it is that makes watching sporting events so exciting?

Excitement can come in the form of a last minute touchdown, a game winning home run, or even a last lap pass that was not expected.

A sport in general is full of exactly that, the unexpected since after all it can neither be choreographed, nor can it be predicted.

Sure there are plays that are pre-conceived. 

But because of the human nature element that is usually thrown in.

You can almost guess that something out of the ordinary is lurking in the shadows just waiting for the right moment to jump out and surprise you.

Now along those same lines, there is what we could call the playmakers, or the heroes as well as the villains of the sport.

The heroes are always the ones that are probably the most loved, because of the storybook endings that usually follow them around.

They are the ones that most fans will always adhere to because of the persona of being the so-called, “good guy.”

Good guys as the saying goes are usually the ones that finish first, and even when they don’t, they take losing just as well as they do winning.

Now what about the villain or the dramatic character, that is typically at odds with the hero as defined by Webster’s Dictionary.

Villains are not hard to spot, and it’s usually because of their antics or their actions that set them a part from the rest of the sporting world.

They are always the ones that do things that are at times not normal, or they like to push the envelope just to draw attention to themselves.

We can look back to some of sports biggest villains and exactly what it was that gave them that label.

After catching the second of four touchdown passes against the New York Giants.

New Orleans receiver Joe Horn was handed a flip-phone by teammate Michael Lewis, who pulled it out from under the padding used to protect the goal post.

San Francisco's 49ers’ receiver Terrell Owens pulled out a pen from his sock after scoring a TD against Seattle.

He then signed the ball and handed it to his financial consultant seated in a nearby suite.

Cincinnati receiver Chad Johnson mugged for the cameras.

After his 10-yard touchdown catch on the Bengals' first possession, he ran out of the end zone and retrieved a preprinted sign stored behind a snow drift.

Johnson, who has repeatedly been fined by the league for uniform violations and touchdown celebrations, held up the sign that read: "Dear NFL: Please don't fine me again."

Or for those of you NASCAR fans who can remember back in the day when Tim Richmond was racing.

Richmond who used to roll his drivers suit down to his hips showing off his chest, while signing autographs for the woman after a race.

And then there was Dennis Rodman of the Los Angeles Lakers who got upset after a technical foul, and took his jersey off and threw it into the crowd while leaving the court.

There are many more incidents that have taken center stage, as well as the focus off of what should have been a normal celebration. 

But is there such a thing as a normal celebration especially when you try to put yourselves in the shoes of those who have tasted the thrill of victory?

Does winning ever get old, or can a driver get too complacent especially when you think about all that adrenaline that is flowing through their bodies, especially at the speeds that they are traveling at?

When you begin to talk about a driver that has already built a really strong love-hate relationship with the fans?

Its not hard see that whether he is winning or losing, Kyle in his own way lets the fans know exactly who is in charge of the situation.

One thing he has learned, and he does it very well is how to use his own antics to stir up the crowd.

Stirring up the crowd is one his best attributes since he has already made it clear that he will probably never be the most popular driver in the sport.

Because that title belongs to his arch rival and Busch has made it more then clear on a couple of occasions.

Now being the most popular driver doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be liked, but it could fall under the category of being able to draw attention to yourself even if you are considered the “bad boy” in the sport.

Dale Earnhardt Sr was not liked by all the fans, but he was still the most popular driver in the series because of his overly aggressive style of driving.

Whenever Earnhardt was on the track, you always wanted to make sure to keep an eye on him because you never knew when he was going to take that aggressive style out on another driver to get the win. And that in itself was one of the reasons that the fans kept a sharp eye on him.

Earnhardt almost single-handedly made NASCAR what it was during his day, and he knew exactly what to do to keep himself marketable.

Kyle is also doing what he needs to do keep himself marketable, except that when he loses he has taken on a whole new role that has never been seen in the sport before.

How many drivers whether past or present, have ever gotten out of their cars, and just walked away from the track because they didn’t win, or because they had a bad finish?

Now is this a behavioral problem that many in the racing world today think is abnormal?

Because even in victory he still knows how to work the crowd to his own advantage, with his signature bow that he takes after winning a race.

Kyle has no remorse for his own actions, or for that matter his own bizarre behavior.

Because it’s a given fact that he is a publicists dream come true by the way he chooses to portray himself.

And when you think about his on-track antics, how many other drivers are willing to take the steps that this young driver has taken to keep himself in the spotlight?

Whether it’s an out of the ordinary way of behavior, or this is just his normal attitude.

The end result is still the same and he is still getting the attention that Kyle himself is after.

So the next time you attend a race, look around at how many fans are keeping an eye on him to see what he will do next?