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Wednesday, May. 07, 2008

Busch not deserving of fans' wrath

Humpy Wheeler, president of Lowe's Motor Speedway, is rarely short on ideas for promotions to gain attention to his track. Later this month, for example, the track will hold a burnout contest as part of the festivities for the Sprint Cup Series' All-Star race.

But following Saturday's sheet metal dust-up between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch, Wheeler might want to consider another promotion to draw attention - offering fans of Earnhardt $100 for rotten tomatoes to be thrown at Busch. It would probably be a welcome offer for many of Earnhardt's fans still seething from Busch's contact with Earnhardt while the two battled for the lead in the closing laps of Saturday's race.

Predictably, there have been a lot of beer cans, insults and other mean-spirited things directed toward Busch since then. That's a shame, because Busch should not have to deal with that kind of reaction.

That's because in the closing laps at Richmond, Busch did absolutelynothing wrong. Well, nothing except race hard and trade paint with a driver with a two-year winless streak who also has a loyal fan base. Had it been any of the 41 other Cup drivers, there would have been a few hurt feelings, but nothing else would have come of it. But the fact that it was Earnhardt threw gasoline on the fire.

In fact, had it been Earnhardt getting into Busch instead of the other way around, odds are that we would still be hearing about how there was nothing wrong with what Earnhardt did, that he wanted the victory more than Busch and that Earnhardt did whatever it took to win, just like his father did so many times.

But here's the reality of the most recent Battle of Richmond. It's a short track. Cars are going to get together and slam into one another, especially in the closing laps. There's a good reason why Richmond sells out its races despite a slumping economy, and it has nothing to do with concession stand food.

If Busch wanted to blatantly take out Earnhardt, he would have moved up on Earnhardt's rear bumper and turned him around going into the turn, kind of like some guy driving a black No. 3 car did a few times.

Busch did nothing to take the win away from Earnhardt. NASCAR's most popular driver had a chance, but it didn't work out. It's time to move on to the next race, Darlington, where chances are pretty good that Busch will be booed worse than the bad guy at a professional wrestling event a week after hitting the fan-favorite in the back of the head with a steel chair.