Aug
20
Written by:
The Commish
8/20/2010 11:33 AM
I don't know if people still call him Shrub much anymore. I do. It's a fun nickname he got stuck with in his younger years, when he was just Kurt Busch's little brother.
Now he's the mercurial and entertaining Kyle, regarded as one of the most talented drivers in NASCAR. He of the deep bow after a win or he of the curt, one-word answer interviews, the guitar smashing, the tantrums and the complete, my-backside-to-the-media fades after anything except a win.
Kyle Busch won again Wednesday night in the truck race at Bristol. After qualifing on pole they had to do some work on the No. 18 so he started at the back but no matter; after 90 laps he was back up front for good to beat Aric Almirola, Ron Hornday, Mike Skinner, Justin Lofton and Todd Bodine with Brad Keselowski, Timothy Peters, Miguel Paludo (who?) and Matt Crafton filling out the top 10. Elliott Sadler crashed and DNF'd in 26th and Austin Dillon was 17th, just out of the FMFL points.
Marcos Ambrose has signed to drive the No. 9 RPM Fusion next season with Stanley as the primary sponsor. The Aussie's deal was helped by Ford and no wonder; they get as close to a sure thing there is on the road courses who happens to be a personable, politically correct but hungry driver who also happens to be extremely popular back home down under, where Ford sells a lot of cars and trucks.
In Nationwide, Aric Almirola signed a multi-year deal with JR Motorsports. Anybody else think Dale Jr. may ride out his Hendrick contract and then add a couple of Cup teams, one driven by Almirola, to his Nationwide stable? Between Chevy and Hendrick and RCR (yes, they're all one big happy, extended family when it comes to racing the Bow Tie brand) you know he'd have decent cars. If things don't turn around soon he could decide that he and Tony Eury Jr. have unfinished business toward proving all the experts wrong about their it'll-never-work driver/crew chief relationship.
Terry Labonte has formed a Cup team with Bill Stavola, with plans for a three races this season thanks to primary sponsorship from Gander Mountain, the nation's larget outdoorsy-type retail network and associate sponsorship from American Cement. Stavola's been out of racing for 10 years, Labonte's best asset is his past champion's provisional but they will have decent equipment and engines supplied by Terry's good friend Richard Childress. This could become a good story part time team with great intentions within the shop, on pit road and in the driver's seat; but chances are better tha they'll be more focused on using NASCAR as a marketing tool so they can at least race a few times a year, with low expectations, but at least having it paid for. Nothing wrong with that.
I'm already tired of the labor pains when it comes to the birth of a "new" IndyCar series, with a (hopefully) new and more better schedule next season followed by new engine manufacturers to go along with the new Dallara 'safety cell' cars in 2011.
Damn. And it's going to be about 18 months before the season-opening blessed event that delivers IndyCar 2.0, when we all get to start counting fingers and toes to make sure the little fella is okay.
Marshall Pruett has a great article on SPEED about the issues behind building a straight four vs. a V6 racing engine, some ballpark costs and who he thinks some players might be and why.
Meanwhile, New Hampshire got a race for 2011 and IndyCar just announced that next year Texas Motor Speedway will host the "Firestone Two-Step," featuring a pair of 275k races on the same evening. (Note: The FMFL will award full points for each race, unlike IndyCar which will only award half). The new Baltimore street race has been re-scheduled for a month later than the originally announced August 5-7 date but no real word about any other new/old (Milwaukee, Phoenix, Cleveland, etc.) tracks that might get a date.
It's just been revealed that Las Vegas Motor Speedway is going to talk to IndyCar in the very near future about bringing the open wheelers back to LVMS in November as the season finale.
That would be wonderful. IZOD could have a big awards banquet in Vegas, they'd have the NASCAR truck series as their opening act (I know, I know; the trucks might draw a bigger crowd than the feature event and wouldn't that be embarrassing) and a strengthened relationship with SMI is just what IndyCar needs as it finally backs off its abusive relationship with ISC.
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