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Busch: NASCAR's villain?

US-based British sports-writer Simon Veness offers his thoughts from Over There on the latest NASCAR action...

Every sport needs to have a Villain. Tennis had John McEnroe (hero to some, brat to many); boxing had the ear-biting Mike Tyson; baseball has Barry Bonds (the specter of steroids will never leave him now); and football has Manchester United (for all non-Reds fans, anyway - although do I sense, from afar, a softening of attitudes towards Alex Ferguson's men?).

The presence of a villain, pantomime or otherwise, heightens the fans' appreciation of any event in which you can pit Goodie v Baddie; Hero v Anti-Hero; Fan Favourite v Boo Boy.

We relish the clash with the Dark Side in any contest, although, sadly, no-one can guarantee a script that sees any sporting Darth Vader get his come-uppance on the field of play.

Put simply, bad blood is good for business.

And NASCAR certainly now has its very own Vader-esque figure to root against. His name is Kyle Busch and he just happens to be the leader in the Sprint Cup standings and the most in-form driver in the 40-odd car pack.

With the next high-speed outing set for the Darlington Raceway in South Carolina this Saturday, it will be well worth keeping on eye on how Busch lives up to his new-found Villain status.

He has certainly come by it easily enough. His sandpaper approach to team harmony has already seen him leave the smoothly-run Hendrick Motorsports team and find a new home among the feisty misfits of Joe Gibbs Racing.

Single-minded

His single-minded approach to winning at all costs did not sit well with the corporate mentality at Hendrick, which ultimately produced last year's champion, Jimmie Johnson.

And his collision last Saturday at Richmond, which did the unthinkable in taking out crowd favourite Dale Earnhardt Jnr, has rushed him to the top of NASCAR's hate parade.

Eventual winner Clint Bowyer, speaking of his honorary police escort to Victory Lane, quipped: "I told them they had better be looking out for Kyle, as he would need police protection to get out of there!"

But the 23-year-old Busch made it clear he is ready to don the full helmet and cape of a sporting Vader as he growled back at the crowd. "I pretty much told them, 'Grow up. That's racing'."

Busch's totally unapologetic stance earned him few plaudits, even though his second-place finish behind Bowyer in the wild finale was enough to push him to the top of the standings.

He has now placed in the top 5 in six of the 10 races to date, with two wins and three other top 20 finishes. His consistency is matched only by his implacable desire to ignore any popularity contests and get to the chequered flag ahead of anyone else.

His shunt with Junior at Richmond was just the most obvious manifestation of that laser-beam focus; the kind of single-minded determination that made Ayrton Senna such a formidable foe in Formula One (and also ensured he was a figure of hate with many fans).

And NASCAR (and the media) are loving it. Fox Sports, who will be screening Saturday's Darlington showdown under the floodlights, are positively rubbing their hands at being able to build up the race into a personal grudge match and head-to-head duel between Busch and Junior.

No ill-will

The younger Earnhardt is so far having none of it, insisting he holds no ill-will against the man who's seat he took in the Hendrick team. But other observers insist otherwise. One of Busch's former Hendrick mechanics is reported to have confronted him after the Richmond incident and team owner Joe Gibbs has been curiously quiet on the subject of his young firebrand's latest scrape.

But, at a time when the sport desperately needs a boost in both attendance and profile, and after a rather anodyne first couple of months of the season, the marketing rhetoric is being ramped up and fans are being advised to prepare for a real on-track feud.

The Darlington Raceway is NASCAR's version of Lambeau Field or Augusta National; it is an icon, a 59-year-old venue with real motor oil in its veins. The 'Lady in Black' as the circuit is known, has an attendance record of only 63,000, but it always seems like more, and the track's traditions heighten everyone's sense of anticipation.

The combination of 'the track too tough to tame' and a bubbling antagonism between two of the sport's leading lights is sure to produce some memorable racing, and Busch has made it clear there will be no quarter given on his part.

"There's a lot worse in this world than someone getting spun out of a race," he insists. "If I'd wanted to do it deliberately, I would have waited until the last lap where I probably still could have won the race. I'll say it again; it's just unfortunate circumstances for him because he didn't get a win, and for me because now I've got to put up with it."

Busch makes a bad fist of "putting up with it," though, and it wouldn't be surprising to see some evidence of a backlash against his current bad press. Many insiders feel he is only making things worse for himself with his barely-concealed belligerence and inability to soften his stance one iota.

But it does make for great TV. Gentlemen, start your engines...!