Kyle Busch Not Getting It?

Observation by Bruce Simmons

I came across an AOL SPORTS article touching on Kyle Busch's expectant perspective that his team mates should have been pushing him to the win on Saturday night, when in fact, maybe, they were driving for their own win, being the individual racers that we all expect them to be when flag end is in sight! (Go figure)

As the article's writer puts it about the last lap of the Daytona (Or any restrictor plate) race, ... the moonshiner, pulling out all the stops to outrun the revenuer, emerges when the checkered flag beckons?

But yet, there were gentlemen in the crowd, as they didn't break ranks in the rush, was Carl Edwards, who graciously assisted teammate McMurray en route to a win while Carl drove to fourth place, and Kurt was there for his brother, but as I've heard too many times in interviews with Kyle, he was pretty intent on catching the side draft from McMurray, and I add - rather than staying in front of his brother and letting him push him to the win. (At least in my humble opinion.)

Here's the article, at AOL SPORTS, and there's a survey asking your opinion on who you think is the worst team mate, and it turns out that we all think..... oh, you'll see.

Did Kyle Busch have no Team Help?

After the Pepsi 400, Kyle Busch, in his ever usual, quiet, reserved commentary (NOT!!) noted that it looked like "We just didn't quite have the teammate situation worked out [Saturday night]".

And further statements made by Kyle:
"Walking down pit road, saying congratulations to Jeff Gordon, I got blown off," Busch said. "I guess I'm the outsider looking in now and I'll probably not be invited to the team meetings next week."

While I was watching the race, I got caught up in the whole front pack dealing spots out with the draft and missed it, but as I read the article, it seems that, like with Vickers, it's possible the Hendrick Motorsports cold shoulder may be coming his way.

If you remember, Vickers was ousted from team meetings near the end of his contract, and I'm wondering if it's possible that Kyle may start seeing that also. HMS quoted the premise of protecting proprietary information for the reason Vickers was not admitted to the team meetings.

"There were a few opportunities for them to get behind me at the end," Busch said. "[Gordon] especially, we were running there behind him and he got passed by [McMurray].

"I was on the inside lane and Jeff was clear a lap later and could have helped us and gotten three Hendrick cars in a row but chose not to do so. He chose to stay up high and help a Roush car.".

See the entire Kyle article, by Mark Aumann at nascar

NASCAR Team Values, Sport Funds, Bruce's Thoughts

Well, I've seen this floating around for some time now, so I thought I'd share in the proliferation of the info, heck, my readers deserve it, right?

It's an article over on Forbes about the values of the NASCAR teams, and in itself, here's a teaser paragraph to set you over there, because they have graphs and charts, and that's what makes it more understandable if you don't want to read all the pesky words..

-Overall, however, licensing is on the decline in NASCAR, and sponsorship rates have flattened out since 2003. Looking ahead, its new eight-year, $4.48 billion TV contract with ABC, ESPN, Fox and TNT (beginning this year) pays less in the near term. Throw in the fast-rising cost of competing (budgets have grown at a double-digit clip since the '90s) and it’s no wonder that we estimate 20% of the sport’s most valuable teams are losing money.-

See the whole article at forbes.com

Call me emotional, but this initially worries me about my favorite sport!! With NASCAR inviting exclusive sponsorships, potentially eliminating competition, what's the draw for other companies, if all they are going to do is get into legel battles about their logo exposure? As it is, AT&T got to show their logo for a few weeks, but now they are defending themselves from NASCAR in a $100 million lawsuit.

And obviously, TV coverage more than likely went to the highest bidder, but I for one, have yet to be happily converted to the ESPN covervage of the second tier level of competition, the Busch Series, which that too is changing, as the long time series sponsore, Busch, is leaving at the end of this year.

We the fan, are seeing much change in recent years. Winston to NEXTEL, to Sprint. The Busch Series, to (TBD) Series. The Truck Series, so far, is still the Craftsman Truck Series. And that's the thing I'm thinking about as I write this, all the change, and all the money. Hopefully, I don't get priced out of being able to go to a race, or buying another diecast. (Oh, don't get me going about my diecast collection!!)

by
Bruce Simmons, The Fan Reporter