Talented Busch easily irked by poor driving around him

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kyle Busch walked fast, as if the harder he dug his heels into the asphalt, the quicker he strode, the farther he could distance himself from the frustration that was his weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

Boos and catcalls rained down from fans perched high above on the Fan Deck, which allows them unprecedented access to the players of the Sprint Cup Series and permitted unrelenting verbal abuse to be thrust upon the burning Busch.

'Best car out there'

It seemed Kyle Busch had the car to beat in the Daytona 500, until it was towed to the garage.

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• Earnhardt has a pitiful day
• Video: Watch the wreck

The anxious media followed in his wake, trying to keep up. But when he finally stopped to answer questions, Busch was in no better mood than he had been most of the past three days he spent in the stock-car racing capital of the world.

In fact, his mood was darker. He was furious with Dale Earnhardt Jr. for what he saw as a foolish attempt to pass Brian Vickers when both racers were a lap off the pace in Sunday's Daytona 500.

They got together, and Busch's No. 18 Toyota was one of several cars caught up in the subsequent melee. When it was over, so was Busch's once-promising day -- and Busch was left wagging an accusing finger at Earnhardt.

"One guy that had problems all day on pit road made his problems our problems, and then our problems a big problem," Busch said, referring to Earnhardt. "It was just unfortunate with that, and it was really uncalled for to have two lapped cars to be racing each other and bumping each other like that.

"You'll have that, I guess, in big-time auto racing."

What he really meant

Busch said that, but didn't mean it. He is so immensely talented that he doesn't appear to understand when others fail to match his talent level or his laser-like focus on winning races.

Earnhardt has displayed his own considerable talent at times in the sport, but Sunday wasn't one of them. And after watching Earnhardt wander aimlessly down pit road, searching in vain for a pit stall that he wouldn't find on the first pass during a scheduled stop on Lap 56, to say he currently seems to lack laser-like focus is a massive understatement. (Continued)