Kyle Busch is a Five Tool Driver
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.
June 23, 2008 11:04 pm CDT 4 CommentsIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Kyle Busch won the Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway and with his first Cup Series road course win has answered perhaps every question but one.
Rowdy….I really hate that nickname. Rowdy was Clint Eastwood’s character on the old Rawhide TV show. Kyle Busch is no Clint Eastwood. But, as my friend the Dude would say, I digress. Rowdy is now, in my opinion, a five tool racer.
The “five tool player” moniker is a baseball term. Five tool ballplayers are said to have it all. Wikipedia says this about them…
In baseball, a five-tool player is one who excels at hitting for average, hitting for power, baserunning skills and speed, throwing ability, and fielding abilities.
The road course win was the missing “tool” for the Shrub. In my version the five tools are really five track types that make up the Sprint Cup schedule. Kyle had already won on NASCAR’s prolific intermediate tracks. He has a short track victory at Bristol. This year brought a plate race triumph at Talladega. On one mile tracks, of every sort - flat Phoenix, concrete Dover and tough Loudon - he’s Jack the Bear.
Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick are five toolers. So is Mark Martin. Earnhardt Sr was one, but Junior isn’t. The list is short.
You can win a championship in the Cup Series and not be a five tool driver. Jimmy Johnson has won two straight Cups and he’s a good enough road racer that a win at the Glen or Infineon will probably come, but hasn’t yet. The un-answered question for Kyle Busch is - can he close the whole deal and win a Cup championship?
The evidence for Busch - 9 Cup wins, 15 Nationwide and 8 Truck Series victories - points to a yes answer to the question. Mark Martin fans would tell you not to count your chickens too soon.
Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - OnPitRow.com
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Wait ’til you see his schedule for this weekend ! I posted his lineup on my page.
Good thing he’s cutting back his laps eh ?
I’ve gotta say that I was pretty impressed with Kyle’s win on Sunday. For once, I totally did not see this one comin’, so good on him.
He’s lucky Harvick took out Stewart. One way or another, it would have been a different finish.
I think you’re right, Charlie. Kyle probably had a better car than Stewart, but Tony’s by far a better road racer, and I think he could’ve made up the difference. What Kyle should really be thankful for, though, is the fact that Carl Edwards got screwed all day long by the way the cautions fell … Carl probably had the best car in the field, but seldom had the chance to show it.