Analysis: Kyle Busch handles Childress controversy like a pro

Analysis: Kyle Busch handles Childress controversy like a pro

 

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

(June 10, 2011)

 

LONG POND, Pa.—Kyle Busch has had a rough month—but that’s like saying Octomom was a little bit pregnant.

 

From speeding at 128 mph in a 45 mph zone in a fancy Lexus to getting pummeled by Richard Childress after the Kansas truck race, Busch has been living a PR nightmare in a sport that requires him to field questions from reporters on a weekly basis.

 

Lost in the maelstrom is the undeniable truth that Busch has matured noticeably—markedly—from the brat who used to run away from interviews after finishing second in a race he felt he should have won.

 

Busch hasn’t shunned an interview this year—not one. And even those who may dislike him or disagree with him have to acknowledge that the driver of the No. 18 Toyota gives reasoned, thoughtful answers to difficult questions—as he did Friday at Pocono Raceway when the inevitable inquiries about his run-in with Childress came up.

 

Busch was and is on probation through Wednesday for the well-documented postrace confrontation with RCR driver Kevin Harvick at Darlington. After the race, Harvick climbed from his car, strode toward Busch, who was still strapped in, and attempted to punch Busch through the car window. Busch pushed Harvick’s car out of the way and into the pit-road wall.

 

Childress issued a warning. If Busch damaged another one of his cars, Childress would take revenge on Busch’s person, to put it nicely. While that threat was widely reported, Busch said Friday it was never communicated to him.

 

“We were in the NASCAR hauler from the Darlington race, and he (Childress) never said a word in there,” Busch said.

 

Whether or not he made the threat directly to Busch, Childress felt compelled to act after Busch bumped the truck of RCR driver Joey Coulter on the cool-down lap after the truck race. For Childress, it was a matter of face.

 

Though the contact between the trucks certainly is open to interpretation, Busch insisted it wasn’t malicious.

 

“There can be an easy way to interpret things sometimes, and it seems like maybe I might be on the wrong end of interpretation a lot of those times,” Busch said. “There was no malicious intent to be involved in hurting or damaging an RCR vehicle.”

 

Unlike Busch, Childress didn’t take questions Friday during a meeting with reporters behind Jeff Burton’s hauler. In fact, the news conference, for lack of a better term, left reporters, who had been invited to what was billed as a Q&A session, wondering why Childress appeared at all, given that his in-person statement differed little from the prepared remarks distributed after his penalties were announced Monday.

 

As a member of the top 12 in the driver standings, Busch, unlike Childress, is required to take questions, but how he answers those is up to him. Busch could have bristled and turned surly when the questions about Childress were raised. He didn’t. He answered them in a respectful, even-handed manner.

 

From Busch’s point of view, perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of the altercation with Childress—and the reckless driving bust—has been the damage done to the perception of the progress he has made as a person and a representative of the sport.

 

Nevertheless, that progress is real, and it’s high time people started to notice.