Kyle Busch’s Time To Be Sprint Cup Champion Is Overdue

Photo Credit: lvms.com

What can anyone say about Kyle Busch? He had been racing full-time since 2005 and has 29 career Sprint Cup wins. He has broken several records since his arrival in NASCAR.

He won the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship. He ran his own Nationwide Series team for three years and has currently run his own Camping World Truck Series team for five years, including two straight owner’s championships in truck. Busch has about done everything you could think of. He did sweep a weekend series at Bristol in 2010, being the first driver ever to do so. One thing that remains which has eluded him since 2005: a Sprint Cup Championship.

What are some of the things that prevented him from winning his first Sprint Cup title? It appears to be mostly bad luck and overzealousness. When he first started at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, he won a career high eight races in the regular season before everything fell apart quickly.

After finishing out of the top 15 for the first three Chase races, he never recovered and finished 10th in the standings. He appeared to be the one to prevent Jimmie Johnson from winning his third straight Sprint Cup title at the time, but never really had the chance in the postseason. He was the number one seed when the Chase began.

Then in 2009, he tried to pick up where he left off, but narrowly missed the Chase. Busch did however become the second Sprint Cup driver to win on his birthday. It was in 2010 where he won three races which was the weekend sweep at Bristol, which was the first time any driver has won a Camping World, Nationwide and Sprint Cup race on the same weekend.

He did however have his bad side show when he had a few on-and-off incidents with officials and drivers. He had a racing incident with Brad Keselowski where he claimed Busch intentionally wrecked him at Bristol during a Nationwide race. During the Chase at Texas, he spun while he was changing his tires on pit road. When he was serving his penalty, he was caught flipping off the officials and was penalized two more laps. He was later fined $25,000 and put on probation the rest of the year.

It was 2011 that served as a wake up call for Kyle Busch. He got into a season long feud with Kevin Harvick when they collided in the Southern 500. He was also reportedly in a physical incident with Richard Childress where it was reported that they were engaged in a scuffle after the Truck Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 250.

Busch had bumped Joey Coulter in the 22 owned by Childress after Coulter won the race, which was said to be a congratulatory bump. It appeared that Childress took it personal due to minor damage and was reportedly fined $150,000. Busch claimed he did intend to damage the truck. It was Texas, however that nearly could’ve cost him his ride with Joe Gibbs Racing.

It was in another Truck Series in November where he tangled with four-time champion Ron Hornaday, Jr. After the caution waved, he deliberately ran Hornaday into the wall knocking him out of the race. The wreck also ended Hornaday’s title hopes.

NASCAR immediately parked Busch for the remainder of the race and the entire Texas weekend. It also mathematically eliminated Busch in the Chase. The incident was so damaging, he nearly lost his primary sponsor M&M’s. There was also talk that he was nearly fired by Joe Gibbs himself for the incident. This is perhaps the turning point where everything changed for him.

Ever since the incident, he appeared to stay out of the NASCAR doghouse. He had since married his longtime girlfriend Samantha and are expecting their first child in May 2015.

Although he has won only six races in the last three years, his maturity had began to show. He continues to run his Truck team which is Kyle Busch Motorsports and dominate both the Nationwide and the Truck series. It was perhaps his attitude and his immaturity that kept Kyle from winning his first Sprint Cup Championship.

After Joe Gibbs Racing won only two races last season, they added Carl Edwards as a fourth driver during the offseason. It is interesting to see whether adding Carl could boost his chances of winning his first title. Yes he is in fact overdue for a title, as is all other notable drivers. It took Kevin Harvick 13 years after making a switch. Although Kyle has changed crew chiefs, perhaps Edwards’ presence could enhance that. Maybe not immediately, but most likely down the road.