Kyle Busch is good for what's ailing NASCAR

THATSRACIN.COM OPINION

Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009

We went with friends Saturday night to a neat new Irish pub in Charlotte to watch the Carolina-Miami exhibition. If there were 10 TVs in the place, nine were tuned to the Panthers and Dolphins.

I saw only one that showed the race.

Bristol Motor Speedway is the track I haven't been to that I most want to see. Friends who aren't race fans tell me I have to go, and I will. The closest I've been is a television. Between plays Saturday I'd occasionally glance up to watch the Sharpie 500 at Bristol.

But I'd always look away. Watching the car of tomorrow go around a track is like watching a fullback go for 2 yards.

I thought it was telling that nobody in the Irish joint pushed for the race on more of the televisions. The crowd didn't strike me as particularly upscale. We were way down 521, near the South Carolina line, football fans out for Irish food, a burger and a beer.

Fans cheered Carolina's DeAngelo Williams and Captain Munnerlyn. Nobody cheered Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Tony Stewart. Fans wore Steve Smith jerseys. Nobody wore Kasey Kahne.

Finally, one of the proprietors went barstool to barstool and table to table to ask if customers were watching Bristol.

“We are!” a man at another table said sarcastically while watching the Panthers second and third-stringers.

When nobody would admit to watching the race, the Sharpie 500 disappeared and was replaced by the Pittsburgh-Washington exhibition.

NASCAR has been disappearing all season, as attendance will attest. There might be no cure for the car of tomorrow, but there is hope for stock car racing. His name is Kyle Busch.

We watched the end of the game at home, and after the game I watched the end of the race. Man, it was a thrill. Two of the most interesting drivers on the circuit, Kyle Busch and Mark Martin, went one-on-one into the night.

Martin, who has the body of a 20-year-old and the face of a 70-year-old, is the rare driver everybody respects and likes. And he almost snuck by Busch, but each time failed. Would he spin the leader?

As is his custom, Martin, 50, raced Busch clean. Busch, in turn, gave Martin plenty of room. Busch managed to hold the veteran off and win the race. In doing so, he moved up to 13th in the standings, one spot out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.0

Since the cars of tomorrow aren't going to become any more exciting, the drivers will have to be. And nobody is more exciting than Kyle Busch.

I love watching the precision of Jimmie Johnson. I don't understand fans who claim he's boring. Is greatness boring? When was the last time a driver sustained the excellence he has, and at the time how many teams were capable of winning a race?

I like watching Martin, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Marcos Ambrose and Jeff Burton, and Earnhardt when I can find his car.

Yet the only driver in contention who is capable of giving NASCAR a necessary jolt is Kyle Busch.

If he were a football player, he would be the rare back who is capable of scoring on every play. If he were a baseball player, the rare batter who would entice fans to sit up and pay attention every time he steps to the plate.

Because he is so unpredictable, so talented and so daring, he is the one you have to watch.

Busch, who at 24 is two years younger than DeAngelo Williams, is a tremendous driver and is not afraid to admit it. He desperately wants to win and is not afraid to admit that, either.

And he doesn't pander to the fans. If they don't like him, he probably didn't like them first.

If he doesn't make the Chase, NASCAR loses big.

NASCAR already is losing. Loyalists will claim that the Irish pub was a fluke, that at other establishments half the television sets were tuned to the race.

That might be true. But consider that we were in Charlotte, the home of a major track, three major races, most race teams and the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Consider that the football game counted in nobody's standings.

You think there was a bar anywhere in Charlotte in which every TV was turned to the race?

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