Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
Love him or hate him, Kyle Busch is good for NASCAR. Why? Because NASCAR needs a ‘bad boy’ right now, and Kyle easily fills those boots.
‘Bad Boys’ generate interest, and the more interest that is generated the more the sport benefits.
Every sport has their ‘Bad Boys’.
Baseball had ‘alleged’ steroid user and home-run king Barry Bonds. Whether you like him or not Barry filled seats. Roger Clemens seems destined to take Barry’s role of baseball’s bad guy, but we’ll have to see.
The NBA has had a few as well, but the most memorable was Dennis Rodman who head butted referee Ted Bernhardt during a game in New Jersey on March 16, 1996.
And it goes on and on.
NASCAR has Kyle Busch. Kyle’s actions on the track and at the track have generated news, and interest. From Kyle’s damning comments about the CoT in victory lane, to his most recent spinning of NASCAR’s most popular driver (as voted by you) Dale Earnhardt Jr when he seemed poised to end a 2 year win-less streak, Kyle’s popularity of unpopularity has steadily grown and as a result created more interest in NASCAR.
His actions, good or bad, have people talking about NASCAR and that is what NASCAR needs. The more people talk about it the more interest that is generated, the more the ticket sales and Neilson ratings will increase as people will either go to races or tune in to see what ‘Bad Boy’ Kyle will do next.
Kyle fills the ‘Bad Boy’ void in NASCAR right now. Tony Stewart used to be the Bad Boy, but he has mellowed in the last few years. Robby Gordon inadvertently tries to pick up the black hat and wear it sometimes (remember last year’s Montreal race?) but he does not run up front enough to be in the fight for the win (unless it is a road course) to generate the kind of interest that seemingly perpetual front runner (at least this year) Busch does. So who’s left to wear the black bad boy hat? No one, even Kyle’s older brother Kurt doesn’t fit the ‘Bad Boy’ mold anymore.
It seems that Kyle is willing to take on this role and is having fun with it as demonstrated during the driver introductions and the driver parade laps during last weekend’s race at Darlington - he even parked his car on the front stretch after winning the race, got out, and bowed to the booing crowd. Kyle also taunted Dale Jr fans by thanking them for treating him ’so well’ this past week after the incident between him and Dale at Richmond that left Earnhardt fans foaming at the mouth and screaming for vengeance.
The problem here for Kyle is that he needs to take this whole ‘Bad Boy’ image very seriously, because if he continues the way he’s going he could be facing serious repercussions, like isolating his sponsors, if he does not take care of his image. It is alright to be the ‘Bad Boy’ as long as its good for the image, but if it isn’t you’re in trouble.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. wore the ‘black hat’ for a long while, but he wore it with respect. Dale worked his image around it, marketing himself as ‘The Intimidator’ and used it to his benefit on the track and in merchandising.
When Dale used his ‘Intimidator’ reputation on the track he calculated his moves and used his bumper with a finesse and precision of a world class surgeon. Dale raced you the way you raced him, but he always made sure that he would come out on top.
Unlike Dale Sr, Kyle is more reckless in his tactics and not as calculating. Not yet anyway.
Currently Kyle has not shown the same respect for the ‘black hat’ that Dale Sr did and that is not sitting well with fans. If Kyle wants the same image as ‘The Intimidator’ had he needs to cultivate it, and stop coming across as a smug butt-head both on and off the track or he’ll just end up as ‘The Imitator’.
Regardless, either way, it will be NASCAR that benefits in the end.
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