Here comes The Rowdy One
BUSCH FEUDING WITH KESELOWSKI
And here we thought Martin Truex Jr. was cruising down the highway, heading to his first NASCAR Cup title.
Not so fast, my friend. Things are about to get disruptive with The Rowdy One, Kyle Busch.
Busch now has won two consecutive playoff races and is only 18 points behind Truex in the playoff standings. Every point is critical in trying to move forward to Homestead in late November for the final-four matchup near Miami, but victories are a surefire way to advance.
We are now down to 12 drivers in the championship mix, after Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Austin Dillon and Ryan Newman were eliminated this past week at Dover. As for Busch, it’s catch him if you can. “We’ve got to win Charlotte,” Busch said after winning in Dover on Sunday, looking ahead toward this week’s race. “Apparently, I haven’t won there before, so I need to go get that win and check that one off the list and that will put us into the next round and we’ll go from there.”
Busch won the Cup title in 2015, capping an impressive comeback after breaking his right leg and left foot in a horrific crash the day before the Daytona 500 (in an Xfinity Series race). He missed 11 races, had to learn to walk again and, with the help of a NASCAR waiver, advanced to the playoffs and won the whole thing.
But he’s been in it full-time in 2017 and up to his usual “does not play nice” personality traits that endear him to many fans and annoy so many others.
A year-in-review includes Busch ripping Goodyear tires after crashing at Daytona to start the season, starting a brawl with Joey Logano and his crew members after a wreck in Las Vegas and throwing shade at Talladega by implying it wasn’t a real race track.
He was then dismissive of Dillon’s victory at Charlotte in a video snippet that went viral in the NASCAR community and may or may not have included Busch picking his nose.
But his combative piece de resistance remains his feud with Brad Keselowski that dates back a few years. When Keselowski implied on Twitter that NASCAR was giving Toyota favourable slack in setups, Busch fired back with a dismissive “STFU” tweet.
Keselowski’s turn: “It’s 2017. When you’re about to lose an argument, you call people names rather than face facts.”
Busch then volleyed with a picture of “Sweet Heat” Skittles (a sponsor), adding, “It’s getting (hot) in here!”
Boys will be boys in cyberspace, but this will have zero relevance moving forward unless NASCAR announces the formation of a Social Media Police. Keselowski, by the way, is fourth in points, which would put both drivers in the championship crosshairs in Homestead. Oh my!
“It just needs to stop,” Busch said in an interview with Kaitlyn Vincie on NASCAR Raceway. “It goes in cycles. We weren’t the ones complaining when we knew the No. 2 car (Keselowski) had an advantage over the rest of the field when they won their championship. We had to go to work to try to figure it out. We were too late when it was said and done.”
There are still seven races to go. We can easily say that all is not said and done among Busch, Truex and Keselowski.