The amazing season that Kyle Busch is having could see another record-setting performance today when he climbs into the No. 51 Toyota Tundra for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck race at Kentucky Speedway.
If the 23-year-old Las Vegas native wins today he’ll become the first driver in the history of NASCAR to win consecutive races in Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck series events.
Busch accomplished the first two legs of the triple at Chicagoland Speedway last weekend when he won both the Sprint Cup race and the Nationwide race.
The younger of the Busch brothers is having a whale of a time, already recording 14 wins this season - two in Trucks, five in Nationwide and seven in Cup - that marks him as the youngest NASCAR driver ever to hit that win total in one season.
Of course, it would be a much happier story if Busch could get the kind of positive fan reaction a Tony Stewart or a Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets, but his precociousness early in his career left him wearing the villain’s black hat and nothing he does can seem to sway the masses.
On the outside he seems to be cavalier about the boos and catcalls that accompany his wins, but those close to him say he yearns for the day when he can turn the jeers into cheers.
Busch should have a sit-down with Jeff Gordon, who got the same kind of treatment early in his career.
Or maybe even look at some of the old footage of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and how he handled being painted as the bad guy when he was starting out.
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