Nobody likes a whiner, especially race fans. Or perhaps I should say NASCAR fans because I have to assume that F-1 fans in Europe expect whining as part of the sport (before I get e-mails from the F-1 contingent, I say this in jest). Kyle Busch finished second to his Joe Gibbs Racing team mate Joey Lagano in the Pepsi 300 held at the Nashville Superspeedway this past Saturday evening. After the race Busch sounded like a sniveling teenager who could not be consoled about anything. He did not say much in the post race meeting with the press. His answers to questions were curt and he looked down through most of it. The more I thought about it, the more perturbed I became.

First he said, “You’re either first or you’re last.” I really had no problem with this at all because you can understand that someone like Busch doesn’t care about anything but winning. But as he was continued to be asked questions he demeanor seemed to get worse. He was asked how his car was and his response was a shot at another driver Michael McDowell. “It just never was a short run car all weekend. We got better the more we ran and we showed that in practice yesterday. The car was actually too tight there at the end when I was racing the 47 for some reason. I don’t know if he was lost on the race track or whatever, but he ran into the right side and killed the right-front fender – frustrating day.”

A few weeks ago I took Busch to task for taking a shot at Dale Earnhardt Jr. which turned into a debate about how bad Jr. sucks or what a jerk Busch is and I would prefer not to have it happen again, but it probably will. However, does Busch feel as if every driver on the track should just get out of his way when he approaches them? McDowell is working his butt off for a chance to compete with Busch in the cup series and the chances are dwindling pretty damn quickly. Sometimes Busch needs to learn that passing the car in front of him at all costs might just cost too much. We saw it happen earlier this year as he went for the lead early in a race and lost it wrecking his car and a chance to win. If Busch laid off maybe he would not have had a handling issue with his car from the bump from McDowell. And what about McDowell? In my eyes he did nothing wrong and actually had a decent finish, on the lead lap. A look at the race statistics shows McDowell in the top 15 for 78% of the race. I think that Busch thinks that these public ‘call outs’ will result in drivers not wanting to deal with his wrath and moving over. It’s not high school Kyle, smack won’t accomplish anything!

However, Busch’s antics weren’t over, not by a long shot. Busch did not like the way that Nashville handled their ‘all access ticket’ package. According to the web site the following was allowed: Pre Race Access to:
Garage
Pit Road
Driver’s Meeting
Driver’s cars on front stretch

Busch did not like it, one bit. “There was a lot of people around here today that had a lot more access than is typical,” he said when asked about what he thought of the package. “Some fans in the garage area need to respect the drivers a little bit more because they’re bringing suitcases of die-casts and autographed items that they want to get signed and I think that is disrespectful.” Then it seemed like Busch actually heard what he said and threw out the standard line, “Yeah, it’s our job to sign for the fans and treat them nice, but when they’ve got three suitcases of stuff that’s a little ridiculous and they camp outside your hauler. To me, that’s a little wrong. If they had one or two items I would be happy to sign for them - that’s fine. But three suitcases is a little outrageous.”

Now this is something that tends to irk me but not why many would think. There is a place for fans in the garage, I truly believe this but a small amount of people ruin it for everyone else. Fans hellbent on an autograph are dangerous in a working garage where they can get hurt and frankly are just in the way of the teams and media trying to work. But pre-race should not be an issue because drivers don’t need to be out that much except for the driver’s meeting. Now I have never seen an ‘open’ driver’s meeting, especially one to fans and I must assume that this is what perturbed him. He had no escape from fans and had apparently had little choice but top deal with them. Check out this picture:

http://www.speedwaymedia.com/photos/pic_view.asp?id=187

Clearly he is inundated with fans. What he needs to do is a take a page out of Jeff Gordon’s book. I have followed Jeff for years and he will sign autographs but he and his pr rep will loudly state, “Please only one item.” Gordon sticks to this and his pr rep Jon Edwards has an uncanny eye to spotting that person looking for a second. Gordon will go to the fence, will stand behind his hauler with a line. He is courteous and gracious, something Busch apparently needs to learn.

But I am not of the school that all fans should get access, its not practical, not at all. There are ample opportunities for fans to meet some drivers on a race weekend and downstairs is not the place! I know many disagree but unless you can fit all 100,000 fans in, don’t allow any purchases of access. I assume all fans want access and it is unfair to allow it to be purchased. Plus, did the track add to the race purse for these purchased garage passes? That, I do not know.

Let’s hear from some people on the above topics… bash away if you must..