Is Kyle Busch the Best Driver in NASCAR?
by Charlie Turner
I'm Charlie Turner co-host of the syndicated, mostly NASCAR radio show On Pit Row. Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. Oh yeah, Steve is an idiot.
April 20, 2008 11:18 pm CDT 13 CommentsIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The Shrub, won his third straight Nationwide Series race Sunday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez outside Mexico City. In order to pull that off, Rowdy Busch had to pass Scott Pruett, one of America’s very best, veteran road racers.
And don’t tell yourself that Pruett has a habit of getting passed at the end of these things. He doesn’t. He usually wins. Sure, Juan Pablo Montoya bumped past Scott in this very same event, at a similar stage of the race last year. But Juan Pablo is an acknowledged, world class, road course master. There is no shame in being passed by JPM.
Scott Pruett is 48 and has had a long successful career in just about anything with wheels. Juan Pablo is an Indy 500 and Formula One Grand Prix winner. Kyle Busch, at something like 22, is already a 27 time winner in NASCAR’s top three series. That’s amazing!
This latest win was Kyle The Younger’s first ever on a road course too. AP has this quote….
“It’s fun to be able to win on a road course because there’s only certain guys that tend to be able to do it,” Busch said. “My first year, first year and a half … I was terrible. I sort of picked up on it a little bit, somehow.”
Yeah, I guess. So now Kurt’s little brother leads the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series and sits an ominous second in the Sprint Cup Race to the Chase. Is he the best of the NASCAR best?
He might be. Sure, equipment plays a big part in success on the track. But to get a chance to drive the best cars - for the best teams - you have to be one of the most talented drivers. Kyle is.
Many vaunted athletes have been put in what appeared to be the perfect circumstances in which to thrive. Plenty have choked. Tiger Woods didn’t. Kyle Busch hasn’t.
After finishing second at this year’s Masters, Woods will have to wait until next year to make another attempt at Pro Golf’s Grand Slam. I hope Rowdy will decide to run the whole schedule of NASCAR’s majors. Taking the NASCAR Grand Slam would leave no doubt in my mind who the best in NASCAR was.
Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.
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He’s certainly the best by far right now. In fact we’ve taken to calling him Kyle “The Desperado”</em. Busch.
Has a certain ring to it doesn’t it? Damn better than Baby Busch.
It seems like the kid can do no wrong, and even if does , it gets chalked to up to ‘an agressive driving style’ the likes which I haven’t seen in many moons.
And what do you think would happen if he liked driving the new car?
Pulling off the trifecta is a whole ‘nuther story, but this kid is ridin’ the wave, no doubt.
Don’t know if he is the ‘best’…..be he is pretty pretty pretty pretty good!
I was chatting with some friends at the Grand National West Race this past weekend, and while he maybe a ‘punk’, he might be one of the best ‘wheelmen’ driving right now. Now if he continues this for a dozen or so years, then we can talk about ‘best’.
I wish ‘my driver’ could go as fast and turn left as good as Kyle.
He is the best driver of the moment, but not the best in NASCAR - not yet anyway.
Let’s see if Talladega continues to be an Achilles heel for Busch the younger. It ain’t ‘zactly been his source for shining moments. 31st avg. finish ( 4 DNFs after getting caught up in the calamities) and I think only once on the lead lap. But given the way the Toyotas from JGR ran at Daytona and having three focused teammates that seem ready to work the train, I’d be real surprised if there wasn’t a top 5 in the making.
A win would be icing on the ‘he can do no wrong’ cake.
Is Kyle on an absolute roll right now? Yes. However, I still think Carl Edwards is the hottest driver in Cup right now. Yet in the overall scheme, I think Kyle Busch’s name has been the one said most this year.
He’s not the best … yet. Give him time, though, and he could be, but as of right now he’s just a driver on a hot streak.
I see a few -”he’s not the best” - comments. OK. Who is? Matt’s Carl Edwards statement is a hard one to argue. Flipper vs the Shrub is the stuff of a good argument. But - “he’s not the best” without an alternative is weak.
I say - Kyle is the best right now. Who is better - right now? You don’t have to grow up to be whatever you are - right now.
No offense, but - hot streak my ass. He is more than a driver on a hot streak. Three different series, guys. This is no flukey hot streak. He’s kicking everybody’s tail whenever he’s on the track.
OK, let me clarify what I meant. Carl Edwards is the best driver in Sprint Cup right now, based on 3 wins and great efforts at tracks he struggled at earlier. Kyle Busch wouldn’t have won at Atlanta had Edwards’ engine not let go. However, if you look at the Nationwide and Truck series and add Kyle’s Cup efforts, he is the best thing going in NASCAR. It’s hard to truly judge who is the best driver, because the car makes a difference. The best driver in NASCAR, in my opinion, is still Tony Stewart. Yet, he hasn’t particularly shown it this year. So, the better argument is who has been the best driver this year, and that is Carl Edwards, with Kyle Busch a very close second. So there.
I’m still wondering if he will race a full schedule in trucks and NNS. He’s not driving the #51 in CTS this weekend, and he will have to step out of the #20 in June for Joey Lagano. Still, that hasn’t kept him from getting a ride with another team in either of those series before, and a Grand Slam will prove something.
[...] Charlie Turner, of On Pit Row, makes a worthy argument as to why Kyle Busch may be the best driver in NASCAR Scott Pruett is 48 and has had a long successful career in just about anything with wheels. Juan Pablo is an Indy 500 and Formula One Grand Prix winner. Kyle Busch, at something like 22, is already a 27 time winner in NASCAR’s top three series. That’s amazing!…read more [...]
It’s good for the sport that we can have this argument. I still think that Jeff Gordon is the best there is. But in the “snap shot” of right now, it’s either Kyle or Carl. I give the driver edge to Busch because of the equipment issue. I think that Edwards has had the better cars of the two, particularly on the intermediate tracks. But I won’t fight you too hard if you want to take Carl Edwards as the top Cup Series driver right now.
What? Are you kidding me? Kyle Busch is a loaded gun ready to fire. If he doesn’t calm his aggresive driving down he is going to kill himself or someone else!