Kyle's feelings understood when it comes to Junior (cont'd)

That's not a knock against Earnhardt or Hendrick, whose closer-than-we-realized personal history -- going back to Robert Gee, Earnhardt's maternal grandfather and a longtime Hendrick employee -- made their association a natural. But since the switch, Busch has 11 race wins on NASCAR's top series, and has firmly established himself as a championship contender. Earnhardt has one victory and is trying to "rebuild Rome," as he aptly puts it. If you worked in a public arena like NASCAR, and you were outperforming the guy who had effectively caused you to lose your last job, wouldn't you take every opportunity to remind people of it, too?

Kyle on Junior

Kyle Busch's reaction to the crew chief change on the No. 88: "You've got to make the most popular drive in the sport competitive ..."

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That's what Busch is doing, and it's completely understandable. But who, really, is the target here? Clearly, Busch and Earnhardt are not friends; in those rare times when they've both been in the media center together after a race, there's a stony silence between them. But is Busch really taking digs at Earnhardt, who in all fairness has rarely had a bad thing to say about him publicly? Is he taking shots at Hendrick? Or is he needling all those fans who see him as public enemy No. 1, who gave Busch holy hell after he and Earnhardt spun out while racing for the win at Richmond early last year, who never give the kid enough credit for his talent and seemed to ignore the lopsided performance results of the last year and a third? Busch told me last year that he has much bigger issues with Junior Nation than Junior himself. And we all know the guy loves to poke the beast from time to time, whether that beast is NASCAR or folks with No. 88 tattoos.

And yet, exchanges like this probably don't help Busch in the long run -- especially when he backs them up by running 23rd as he did at Dover, fighting tire and splitter problems and placing 11 spots lower than you-know-who. For all his issues on-track, Earnhardt remains a smart, savvy guy capable of seeing the big picture. His public responses to Busch's barbs have always been measured and mature. Now, that may be because he hasn't had the performance results to back up any mud-slinging he might really want to do. But in the public eye, he gets a lot of credit for not taking the bait, which he refused to do at Dover.

"He's always had a chip on his shoulder for me," Earnhardt said when informed of Busch's remarks. "I expect anytime he gets an opportunity to throw a jab in there, he's going to do it. That's just his personality. We're working toward trying to figure out how we can make our deal work and that has nothing to do with Kyle. We'll see how this weekend goes and then move forward next week."

That ability to take the high road is one of Earnhardt's more impressive traits. Of course, we still don't know what he said to Busch in the drivers' meeting Sunday. Questions on that subject were immediately shut down by Earnhardt's public relations man after the race, so the extent of the conversation remains unknown. It seems very doubtful that the two were making dinner plans for Pocono.

And so, the mystery remains. And if Earnhardt keeps struggling and Busch keeps winning, it seems only a matter of time before the driver of a certain yellow Toyota takes advantage of an opportunity to remind everyone of that fact. Maybe that's not exactly the classy, mature thing to do. Maybe it's not helping Kyle Busch make any new fans. But it's understandable, coming from an uber-confident 24-year-old who's been through the experience of getting canned. And until Earnhardt steps his performance up to Busch's level -- definitely possible, but far from guaranteed -- all those Busch bashers are really left with nothing to say in response.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.