Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog

OK, a few posts ago some of my more outspoken readers got into it in the comment section over whether or not Kyle Busch is the next Dale Earnhardt.

For what it is worth, I don’t think so. Not yet anyway, it is still way too soon in his career to tell.

Certainly, this year Kyle is driving his car with a youthful confidence driven brashness of seemingly reckless abandon in a ‘take no prisoners’ style that a younger Dale Earnhardt had when he first started. One difference though, Earnhardt had to drive like that to pay the outstanding bills, while Kyle does not have that worry.

With Earnhardt it was literally ‘feast or famine’, if he didn’t win the largest portion of the purse he couldn’t pay the bills. Kyle on the other hand, has a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract with Joe Gibbs Racing topped with various endorsement deals. He isn’t racing to pay the bills, his bills are paid. How many 22 year olds can say that?

Don’t get me wrong here, I think Kyle certainly has the potential to be as good, if not better than Dale Earnhardt (in the record books at least) but I still think it is too early for such comparisons to be made.

In the end, Kyle may win more races than Dale, but will he leave a lasting impression on the sport as Dale did? Will he be as iconic as Dale was? Will he be as respected, and feared, as Dale was? And so on.

Once we know the answers to these questions then an accurate comparison can be made, but lets face it, no matter what you do, or who you are, you will always compare something to the established benchmark in that sport, area, business, etc. and until a new benchmark is achieved the comparisons will continue to be made and will continue to come and go.

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