Kyle Busch winning races, if not many new fans
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - With each NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race he wins, Kyle Busch seems to win over a few more hearts and minds. Or maybe not.
Whether you love him or loathe him, the cocksure 23-year-old driver from Las Vegas is a rare breed - a pure racer. Busch's talent was evident over the weekend at Daytona International Speedway when he finished runner-up to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin in Friday night's Nationwide Series race and survived a crash-marred, caution-filled Coke Zero 400 Saturday night that was punctuated by a wild green-white-checkered overtime finish.
It marked the third week in a row a Busch was greeted in Victory Lane. Kyle won a road-course event two weeks ago at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., and his 29-year-old brother Kurt won last week's rain-shortened race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
After Kyle pulled his No. 18
When he was met with a mix of lusty jeers and hearty cheers, Busch shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, "What's up with that?"
Then, as the boobirds continued to hoot, Busch let it roll off his back and took a deep bow.
"I mean, you'd rather be known as a good guy and be liked by everybody, which is hard for me to do, so I just roll along with it and do what I can," said Busch, who captured a $315,950 payday.
His series-leading sixth win of the season expanded his series points lead to 182 (2,686 to 2,504) over Dale Earnhardt Jr., who climbed to second over Jeff Burton.
"I mean, I have fun with it, I guess," Busch said. "But you know, to me, I'm just kind of like: 'What? Why?' That's about it."
A runner-up in his two previous starts in NASCAR's midsummer classic - he lost last year to Jamie McMurray by .005 seconds - Busch was a bridesmaid no more at Daytona, where he was ushered to Victory Lane for the first time in his Cup career.
"It was a great night for us," said Busch, who dropped to 37th on Lap 82 but came charging to the front, passing Jeff Gordon with four laps to go in the 160-lap race.
Busch remained in front when a seven-car melee brought out the 10th caution one lap later, setting the stage for the green-white-checkered finish in which Gordon, who went from second to 30th in the last four laps, got punted from behind while trying to block Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards on the restart.
"We had a pretty good car," Busch said. "It wasn't the best one out there, but it was good enough where we were able to get it up towards the front and race there much of the night."
Edwards went high and pulled the nose of his No. 99 Ford up to the door of Busch's car as the two raced into Turn 2 on the white-flag lap before the race's 11th and final caution was unfurled for a Turn 1 accident involving Michael Waltrip, Dave Blaney, Travis Kvapil, and Sam Hornish Jr. that froze the field and ended the race.
"First of all, I know you can only run as fast as your equipment will carry you. So, obviously, he's got good equipment," Edwards said of Busch, who came to Joe Gibbs Racing after losing his ride last year in the No. 5 car fielded by Hendrick Motorsports. "Sometimes you'll get together with somebody and have good chemistry and can figure this stuff out better than maybe you can with somebody else. And, obviously, he's been able to hit it off with his team really good over there, and obviously they got good stuff.
"And, he's just been pretty much on fire, so he's been having an exceptional year, that's for sure." 