The song title by Toby Keith becomes a reality for Kurt Busch, doesn’t it? The not so popular Busch has proven that it doesn’t matter how much people boo him, he will still get the job done.
I have to admit, going into last Sunday’s race I thought Busch had two chances of winning the inaugural Nextel Cup, and Slim had left the room. In true Jack Rousch, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch form, the team stayed with it and brought their driver home in fifth, securing Rousch his second championship in a row and making Busch into a trivia question in years to come.
How did this goofy looking kid from Las Vegas do this? Two years ago he was just another name on the books for Rousch to bring up the ranks and possibly lose to other car owners. He never had a chance to gain popularity really, by the time he started to show he was a real player the Jimmy Spencer incident came along and almost every fan hated him. He soldiered on, and it had to be hard for the young man to stand in victory lane at Bristol and hear the scowling that the fans gave him. Whether we like to admit it or not, none of us like to be booed, and deep down inside we all want to be liked.
Kurt Busch seems to me like he is a real competitor. Look at the pressure that has been on him over the past two seasons. He wins a bunch of races in 2003, but falls short and takes the back seat to teammate Matt Kenseth. In addition his younger brother comes forward as true upcoming star, and for a rival car owner. The elder Busch had a lot to prove, and it looks like now he has done that. From now on he will be known as “Former Champion” and that adds a lot to his resume.
There are few questions left for Busch and Rousch. You have to imagine that Rousch would like to hold on to the driver for his entire career, much like he has done with Mark Martin. He’s well spoken and likable enough, he just has to shrug off the problems that he and Spencer caused for him. I would imagine if you asked him if he has learned anything from the experiences of the past two years, he would say he learned to keep his mouth shut and his foot on the gas. He, like Dale Earnhardt, is letting his actions on the track speak for him. Don’t get me wrong and start writing to the paper, I’m not comparing him to Earnhardt, I’m just saying Earnhardt was a man of few words, he did his racing “old school” on the track, all the trash talk was left to others. Busch is starting to be like that, if he has anything to say, he makes the statement in short, to the point comments.
Busch made a comment recently to NASCAR.com, “It took me some time to understand the bigger picture,” he said. “Just to be able to understand the bigger ethic of the bigger picture about racing at this level is one thing that I misunderstood the first couple years.”
Whatever Busch didn’t understand, he does now, and he seems to be a quick learner. We’ll see many more happy times for the driver, at least we can hope for that.
Till next time, keep turning left.

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