Kurt Busch has a new team and sponsor this season. Credit: Autostock

Eventually, Busch will win people over

The e-mails come in all day long and at all hours of night. Beep, beep, beep. You have new mail. You have 458 unread messages.

All from people who hate Kurt Busch.

	RYAN SMITHSON •   E-mail Ryan •   Opinion Archive

Even in a week dominated with hatred geared towards Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus' kindergarten teacher, the devoted e-mailers are pummeling me with anti-Kurt Busch propaganda.

"I was near his souvenir trailer all weekend," wrote one. "I didn't witness a single sale."

"Much to my horror, my 15-year-old daughter is a Kurt Busch fan," wrote another.

This is a subject that has long fascinated me. Kurt Busch is a smart guy. Almost too smart. People don't like dealing with others who appear to be condescending and smug, and that is part of Busch's problem.

He can make you downright uncomfortable. Not Tony Stewart-I-will-drive-an-anvil-in-your-head uncomfortable, but more like I-know-more-than-you uncomfortable.

By all accounts, Busch is a different person when he leaves the racetrack. When he enters the tunnel, he brings an uncomfortable vibe with him. About once a year (sometimes twice a year) he will do something guaranteed to embarrass him for years.

Busch wasn't in NASCAR for an hour before he was blamed for causing a huge pileup in the inaugural Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona in 2000. He fought with his own team in 2001. Showed his backside live on NBC in 2002. Was punched by Jimmy Spencer in 2003.

It never ends.

Even when HBO's Real Sports aired a flattering segment on him last fall, any possible gain was canceled out by separate incidents at Loudon and Phoenix.

	Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Kurt Busch's Cup career Year Starts W T5 T10 2000 7 0 0 0 2001 35 0 3 6 2002 36 4 12 20 2003 36 4 9 14 2004 36 3 10 21 2005 34 3 9 18 2006 1 0 0 0 Totals 185 14 43 79

Sure, Busch isn't easy to deal with during those kinds of times. He tends to give short, curt answers to questions he considers inferior. When relaxed, he is extremely approachable, but those moments were few and far between last season.

With Busch's new job and freshly pinned ears (yes, that really did happen, even if the huge billboard outside Daytona suggested otherwise), he is trying to start 2006 with a clean slate. Whether fans buy into it is up to them.

I still get e-mails from time to time claiming that Busch's title in 2004 wasn't legitimate. The new Chase format, they said, artificially created a title for him.

I had a discussion with someone last week that left me convinced that Busch's smartass attitude transforms into a never-quit philosophy that begins when the flywheel is engaged every Sunday afternoon.

The facts are simply too strong. Busch's cocky attitude benefits him more than it hurts him once he is in a racecar.

That very attitude is the reason he won the title at Homestead more than a year ago. How many drivers would have remained in the game mentally despite the fact his wheel fell off entering pit road? Fewer than you think.

Busch is not going to give up in a racecar. He didn't even give up when he was born with ears that brushed the walls in his bedroom.

And he won't give up trying to endear himself to his peers in the garage, and to the people who don't buy his shirts.

Over of these years, that very determination will eventually win over the people that he currently alienates.

He may even sell a shirt.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.