Browse > Home / Car of Tomorrow, Carl Edwards, NASCAR Tech, Sprint Cup Series / Kyle Busch is the Best Road Racer in NASCAR

Kyle Busch is the Best Road Racer in NASCAR

User Avatar

by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Charlie likes to call me an "idiot". I'm not an "idiot"; I just prefer not to let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

August 14, 2008 7:02 am CDT 1 Comment

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!


Like the driver himself, the headline may cause NASCAR fans to scream foul.

Facts can be made to say about anything that you want them to. They can be twisted, manipulated and stretched in any number of ways to get a point across. It is tough to argue that anyone is better than Rowdy at road racing in NASCAR at this point in time.

No one in NASCAR history has won three road races in a single season until The Shrub did it in 2008. Winning both Cup races at Infineon and Watkins Glen along with the Nationwide race in Mexico City moves him to the head of the list.

ON PIT ROW, the radio show, every week asks four “Fast Lap” questions that are worded in such a way as to spur debate. One of this week’s Fast lap questions asked if Kyle Busch is the best road racer ever. NASCAR has been running road races as long as there has been NASCAR, and no one has been able to win more than two in a season.

Two names have been brought up as better road racers than Kyle. One is Dan Gurney. Gurney was one helluva road racer, no doubt about it, but I don’t consider him a NASCAR driver. He was the epitome of a road course ringer in NASCAR’s youth. Gurney posted 5 wins on road courses in his NASCAR “career”; but again he was never a full timer and four of those came at one race track–Riverside. Considering the road course stops on the circuits today, Riverside seems more like Pocono than a true road course.

Jeff Gordon has nine wins on the lefts and rights. A pretty remarkable number until you consider the level of competition that he raced against to gain many of those wins. Gordon began winning road course races when only ten or fifteen percent of the field could possibly win one. The first attempts for the NASCAR elite to run at The Glen and later at Infineon was a scene out of a Buster Keaton movie. Gordon was able to pile up wins while the rest of the field was using the two road courses as ‘throw aways”. Who can forget the scenes of top notch drivers doing more driving in the dirt than on the course?

The level of competition is higher. The race tracks are tougher and in my mind, no one in NASCAR history has done it better than Kyle Busch. Busch’s sponsor M&M/Mars has put together a promotion to find the most colorful fan in NASCAR. Check it out at http://tsc.nascar.com/mmsracing/
it is some fun–much like watching their driver has become.

Kyle is turning heads on the race track and turning detractors into fans. Love him or hate him, the boy has talent and some flair for the dramatic.

Photo credits:BethAnne Heisler/ON PIT ROW
Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Busch Series, Kyle Busch, NASCAR, NASCAR Bidness, Nascar Legends, Nationwide Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Pocono Raceway, The Busch Bros, The Fast Lap, road course ringers 

Tagged with: , , , , ,

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

Comments

One Response to “Kyle Busch is the Best Road Racer in NASCAR”

  1. User Avatar Matt Mercer on August 14th, 2008 9:31 am

    I like Kyle too, Steve, but you’re wrong. What about Tony Stewart? All 6 of his wins have come since 2001, when the ringers were in full force and competition was higher than ever. He won at Sears Point in 2001 and 2005 and has dominated at Watkins Glen, winning in 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2007. Busch needs to do it for more than one year as I said earlier before he gets that title.

Got something to say?

Did you know you can log in with your Thunder Lounge account, and have your personal avatar and site link available when you comment at On Pit Row?

Don't have an account yet? Sign-up for free.





Powered by WP Hashcash