Kyle Busch appears ready to lead
NASCAR Soundtracks: Brickyard
INDIANAPOLIS -- Mark Martin obviously was disappointed that he finished second to teammate Jimmie Johnson on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You could see it in his face. You could hear it in his answers, shorter and more to the point than normal.
But Martin didn't stomp off and leave the track without speaking. He didn't blast his team for not making an adjustment on the final pit stop that would have given him the power to win. He took it like a man, something he didn't do so well early in his career.
"I learned a long, long time ago … people don't like to hear a grown man cry," Martin said.
Kyle Busch finally may understand this.
The 24-year-old was frustrated when a blown right-front tire on Lap 57 not only took him out of contention for one of the most prestigious races of the season but out of the top 12 that will make the Chase in six weeks.
But instead of crying about it, he discussed what happened as his team worked feverishly to get him back on the track. He said he went out of his way to praise his crew and all they had done to help him make up ground on pit road.
Remember the moment. If Busch goes on to win the title this season or any other, it will be significant.
That may have been the moment Busch became a leader. That may have been the day, although it doesn't look that way from 14th place in the points, he became a serious championship contender.
"I've been involved with championship teams and have seen what it takes to win one and what it takes to get close," said ESPN analyst Andy Petree,who won two titles as a crew chief for Dale Earnhardt and one as a tire changer for Darrell Waltrip.
"To win one, you have got to have this kind of maturity about you as a driver and team to get through some hard times without letting it upset your team, without letting it break your momentum."
In other words, without being destructive.
Busch has been destructive much of his career. That's one reason Hendrick Motorsports released him to sign with Joe Gibbs Racing two years ago. He wasn't considered a team player, or at least enough of one worth keeping around despite tremendous talent.
There are times now when that talent is good enough. There also are times, such as last season when mechanical failures in the first two Chase races put him in a huge hole, when he would admit his attitude takes his entire team down.
He won't win a title until he finds a balance between the two.
"I don't like to be chasing," Busch said. "I like to be the guy leading, so it's hard. But sometimes you have to look back at the big picture and realize that you can do a lot more to help and rally the team than really hurting it and dragging it down."
Defining moment
Busch was chugging around Chicagoland Speedway two weeks ago in a car that handled like a tractor in a muddy field.
"I got nothing," he radioed. "I don't care what you think. It's junk."
By the time Busch realized he'd lost spring rubbers from his suspension, he'd already lashed out at his team. The damage was done. It was a defining moment.
Busch had a come-to-Jesus moment with his spotter and public relations manager during the off week between Chicagoland and Indianapolis. They discussed how he might better handle situations, how to not wear all of his emotions on his sleeve.
"Maybe that's why I've won some races is because of who I am, but maybe that's a lot of the reason why I've lost some races is because of who I am," Busch admitted before Sunday's race.
"There's a balancing act in everything you do and there's consequences and ultimately repercussions for things, so I'm trying to work on it and make it better so we don't have to look at myself as to why the problem exists."
It could have been all words to get the media, fans and everybody else off of his back. But Busch backed it up by the way he handled himself following Sunday's misfortune that left him with a 38th-place finish and 14th in points, 82 out of the Chase.
“” -- Kyle Busch
Maybe that's why I've won some races is because of who I am, but maybe that's a lot of the reason why I've lost some races is because of who I am.
So Busch is getting it.
"He'll get it because he wants to win," Petree said.
Greg Zipadelli went through the same thing as Tony Stewart's crew chief early in his career, and knows what Busch's crew chief Steve Addington is going through now.
"Oh, my God!" said the man now charged with teaching 19-year-old rookie Joey Logano the ropes. "[Me and Stewart] went through it for a lot of years. Obviously, it's part of life and a lot of very talented people that have that natural ability put that kind of pressure on themselves to perform.
"But there is a balance there between destruction and pressure."
Winning a championship isn't all about being the most talented. It's about being able to make the most out of a bad day.
"There's a lot of talented guys out there that run fast," Zipadelli said. "It's not about just today, going out and hauling ass."
Zipadelli didn't care how many times Stewart said or did something stupid around the media. As long as the driver gave 100 percent on the track, he left satisfied.
"But if you gave 80 percent and 20 percent of frustration, and you think you're driving your ass off but all you're doing is tearing s--- up, you don't have anything to build off of or talk about or figure out, or a car to build on for the following week," he said.
"It does a lot of things when you tear stuff up or tear your team apart."
Busch has a lot of the young Stewart in him. He gets ridiculed as much for what he does off the track as what he does on it.
What Busch doesn't have is Stewart's two titles, and he's starting to understand why.
"We've had a lot of heart-to-hearts with Kyle just like we had with Tony," Joe Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs said. "Over the long haul he's going to be better off seeing the big picture."
All champions get it
Martin was laughing as a group of reporters hung on his every word in the bullpen during last Saturday's qualifying.
"Listen, I know you guys think a lot of me, but I'll tell you right now, ain't nothing Tony Stewart has ever said or Kyle Busch has ever said that I haven't thought," he said. "I am an intense guy, too. I've learned over the years that to make your team love you, you will get much better results than if you grind them."
Most of the great ones do. Just ask Richard Petty, who along with Earnhardt has won more titles (seven) than anyone else in the sport.
"I couldn't take my team down," Martin said. "Anything I took down, I took down myself."
That is not to suggest that Busch either should temper his desire to win or his aggressive style. That's important, as he showed winning eight of the first 26 races a year ago.
"You want to have an emotional guy, you want to have a guy that wants to win really bad," Petree said. "But you have to be able to control that emotion.
"He can't be spouting off when he's got a problem with a pit stop or say the car is junk here and there. Suck it up. Have a bad day and go back and regroup."
It takes character and poise to win a championship. All the great ones will tell you that.
"That is why I say experience is key," four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon said. "One of my strengths has always been is that I am pretty level-headed in the car. … Once I did get the experience, I felt like those types of personality traits really paid off."
Nobody in the garage is more level-headed than Johnson. Seldom do you hear him go off on another driver or his crew. When he was 156 points out with six races left in the 2006 Chase, he didn't get frustrated. He got better, running off five straight top-two finishes en route to his first title.
"If I lose my cool, I make bad decisions on the track, it tears down the team and the energy on pit road and it could lead to slower pit stops or an issue on pit road," Johnson said.
Don't write Busch off
On Sunday, while sitting in the garage stall while is crew repaired his car, Busch looked as though he'd lost his best friend. The fear that somebody of his talent could miss the Chase was becoming a reality.
"The thing that's dangerous with Kyle is that he can go onto a run," Johnson said. "We all kind of frame in what we think of Kyle and what his shortcomings would be, and then he knocks it down and does something that impresses all of us.
"He can really step up and deliver when he needs to."
Busch needs to now more than ever. He's on a 10-race stretch of looking like Superman with kryptonite, posting an average finish of 21.2.
But we all know that he's capable of being a super hero again. He's led 809 laps, more than any driver save for Johnson. Only Martin has more wins (four) than Busch (three).
"I've tried to encourage my team instead of grinding them, encourage them to be more than they were before I came along, better than they were before, and try to help them realize their dreams," said Martin, trying to achieve his dream of a title at the age of 50. "It's not always easy."
Busch seems to get that now. He understands so much so that he made light of team owner Joe Gibbs' new book, "Game Plan for Life: Your Personal Playbook for Success"
"Apparently, it's a game plan of life, so maybe that's what I need," he said.
What Busch needs is some consistency mixed in with his moments of brilliance, an understanding that he can't win every race, that there are times when 10th is as good as a win.
"I'm not very good at that and I don't think our team is very good at that," Busch said. "Maybe that's because of me. Maybe I'm not leading it in the right direction.
"I've got some things that I've got to try to work on to make ourselves better and ultimately more championship-caliber."
He won't win one until that happens.
David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.
