Good or bad, Busch's loose style a cherished talent

HAMPTON, Ga. -- The car wasn't green, and there wasn't a lightning bolt on the hood. The 18 was decaled in red, but the sticker most people were looking at was the one on the grille -- the Toyota oval.

Quite a bit has changed since the No. 18 of Joe Gibbs Racing has gone to Victory Lane. The last time was Nov. 16, 2003, when Bobby Labonte won the season finale at Homestead. That was 148 races ago.

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So when Kyle Busch parked his ride on the checkerboard Victory Lane at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, excuse team president J.D. Gibbs for getting a little emotional.

"What's special about this for us, the 18 car," he said, "17 years racing the 18 car. We had so much success a few years ago. To come back now after a few down years, to come back and be this strong consistently week in, week out ..."

Gibbs paused for a moment, then pointed directly to the source: "I think Steve [Addington, crew chief] was joking, he didn't know whether to hug me or punch me, it took me so long to get Kyle on board."

No worries, J.D. In fact, it's taken quite a few people a while to get on board with Kyle, too.

Last year he won the first race in NASCAR's new chassis, stood in Victory Lane and then blasted the car because of its handling difficulties. And then on Sunday, when he scored Toyota's first victory in a Sprint Cup Series race, his enthusiasm about the manufacturer's milestone wasn't exactly contagious.

"Well, it's pretty special. But it wasn't all that important to me," Busch said afterward. "You know, for me to go out there and win, it doesn't matter what car I'm driving. I told you I'd drive a milk crate, which is pretty much what this thing drives like."

It's hard for people to get on board with Kyle because of his perception.

On Saturday, after leading 153 of 198 laps in the Nationwide Series race, he cut a tire, smashed the wall for the second week in a row in that series, then limped around for a 24th-place finish. When being chased by a television reporter after the race, Busch kept walking through the garage. The question asked: Was there anything that gave you an indication that you could possibly be having a tire going down at the time? Busch: "Nope." (watch video)

Kyle Busch

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On Friday, he bumped Colin Braun while aggressively trying to work his way back through the field in the Truck Series race (watch video) -- a race in which he beat regulars Ron Hornaday and Mike Skinner. Some people can't get on board with that.

Then on Sunday, he led 173 of 325 laps. On the track, he never fell below eighth position. And despite relying on Carl Edwards' car to go up in smoke due to a transmission, and later stating that the No. 99 car was the class of the field, Busch parked his car on the finish line, got out and stood on the door as if he knew for 500 miles that he'd be man standing in that very spot at day's end.

Fans roared in approval. Still, for some others, it's hard to get on board with that.

But they better.

As appropriate as it was that the 18 car won at Atlanta much like Labonte did the six other times in that Gibbs car, it was even more appropriate how Busch did it. He was sideways more times coming out of the corner than not. He scraped the wall once (watch video), and even told his crew he may have messed something up with the rear housing.

"I never really worked with him as closely as Tony [Stewart] and my teammates have," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "But they all say he's an amazing talent. And he's just got a great seat-of-the-pants feel for a car, and he can drive 'em pretty sideways. We get sideways, too, but we just ain't ever leading when we're doing it."

Added Stewart: "That, and we've crashed a lot more, too. So we know what it's like if we make that mistake."

He managed to squeeze grip out of tires that 42 other drivers couldn't on Sunday. The garage was full of complaints about Goodyear's hard compound it brought to AMS, more specifically Stewart and Earnhardt -- the second- and third-place finishers -- hammered NASCAR's official tire company.

Busch didn't complain: "You know, I just went out there and we all had the same tires. They're going to pay somebody to win the race. And so that's what I focused on ..."

"He's an amazing talent," Stewart added. "It's fun to watch him. When he gets out of a car, he's got everything that car is capable of. That's what you want out of a guy."

As one of only two drivers to lead every Cup race this season, the driver who has led more laps than anybody, and, of course, the points leader, that's exactly what Gibbs is getting.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.