Newman’s View on Shrub Incident
May 8, 2008 by Tim Zaegel
Filed under Racing
The wreck between Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. last Saturday at Richmond has gotten the entire NASCAR Nation talking, even Ryan Newman – Penske Racing teammate to Kyle’s older brother, Kurt. According to a post made on Kurt Busch’s fan forum, Newman had this to say about Kyle:
“What I think is Kyle Busch ran out of talent. Junior left him room, and Kyle turned him around. Kyle said it was good, hard racing, but good, hard racing doesn’t require you to spin somebody out.
He apologized afterwards, and that’s pretty much it. But, it’s funny, when that happens to Kyle, he sure is Mr. Tough Guy.
When something like that happens, my reaction depends on who it is and what’s going on in the race. You can play it different ways. Sometimes you cut people more slack, sometimes you don’t. It’s a give and take.”
Hmmm. Wonder how Newman’s good friend and teammate, Kurt Busch, feels about the strong words regarding his little brother? I don’t want to read too much into it, but with all the other small kinks that’ve gone on between Newman and the Penske organization this year, you have to wonder if this might add anything to it.
In Other News:
- Tony Stewart recently visited Indianapolis Motor Speedway to help promote a Chevrolet event. While there, he was asked about his desire to win the Indy 500. He responded by saying that the passion is still there, but if he ever does get back inside an IndyCar, it would be a long way down the road due to several other commitments on the NASCAR side of things. He also responded to another question concerning his continued involvement with Chevy with his other race teams, and he re-attested the fact that he is in no way unhappy driving a Toyota in the Cup Series.
Newman’s got it right.
I can’t get over the “pundits” that can’t tell the difference between “just hard racing” and a total disregard for the laws of physics.
It doesn’t take talent to sail a car into a turn too fast to have a chance of making the corner, any boob with a fast car could have done that… …the shrub simply lost it and used Junior as a berm.
o.k t.z keep pouring salt in are jr. fans wounds ha ha. I agree with newman kyle drives his car on the border line of out of control most of the time and he just didn’t have it that time.
“Ran out of talent”? Meow! I’ll have to remember that line . . .
I just hope there isn’t a third Busch brother waiting to foreshadow the first two. Two jerks from one family should be the limit.
It is most likely that Busch did get loose going into the turn, but the Junior Nation is not going to allow that excuse. I, for one, believe it was intentional, though not necessarily targeted at Dale Jr. Busch is still a young, gung ho, driver that will wreck someone to get a win. It doesn’t matter if it was Dale Jr. or Carl Edwards, or even his own brother.
Cesar
RacingForTheWin.com
When I first read Newman’s comments, I was actually pretty surprised to see him take his opinions public, with Kyle being his teammate’s brother and all.
Is it just me, or does Newman seem particularly blunt and outspoken this year?
I think, everybody should accept it positively, because this kind of thing happens in racing pretty regularly and it is a part of the game. Moreover, drivers should also drive with honesty and remember that winning a race is nothing all in one’s career. For winning a race, one should have the morale, skill and talent.
Deb, it’s been rehashed here on this site time and time again throughout the week, but again, I don’t think it’s just that Kyle spun Earnhardt, it’s just that Kyle has a certain lack of patience that’s required in NASCAR.