Busch: Highlights his number of wins

It's starting to sound like the classic Alex Ferguson v Arsene Wenger verbal battles. Only this time it is Kyle Busch v All Comers.

And the All Comers are beginning to have the look of desperate also-rans in the wake of the dashing and uncompromising driver they call 'Rowdy.'

Following Busch's eighth victory of the season on the road course of Watkins Glen (probably best-known to older UK race fans as the former site of the US Grand Prix), he now holds a vice-like 242-point lead over his nearest rival in the Sprint Cup standings with just four races before the Cup Chase starts.

As things stand, Busch will have a commanding advantage for the 10-race Chase itself, and all the banter will sound like so much empty posturing.

The latest outing sees the NASCAR circuit travel to just down the road (motorway I-94 in this case) from my base here in Michigan, for Sunday's 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway (live on Sky Sports 1 on Sunday from 6.30pm), hence it has something of a 'local' flavour for me.

Busch, who officially takes his nickname from the character in the Tom Cruise film 'Days of Thunder', is wonderfully unrepentant at his wining streak this season, which includes an amazing 13 top 5 finishes in the 22 events to date. He also shows every sign of being utterly bullet-proof to his rivals' sniping.

Reigning champ Jimmie Johnson (currently third in the standings, 244 points in arrears) is the latest to put Rowdy in the verbal crosshairs by insisting the Joe Gibbs Racing star is NOT the favourite to go on and claim the title this year, citing veteran drivers Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon (some 500 points behind) as having the 'experience' necessary to emerge victorious at the end of the 10-race Chase series.

Now, it may be a minor quibble, but I would have thought anyone who could pile up a 500-point lead over the 'experienced' drivers might also be more than capable of showing them a thing or two (like the rear of his No 18 Toyota) in the races to come.

It's not the same as Lewis Hamilton's slender lead in the F1 World Championship last year, when he allowed himself to show his inexperience by being edged out in the final race. Busch is so far ahead of his rivals at the moment they practically need a telescope just to glimpse his exhaust.

But, seemingly, the fact he went two whole races without a top 10-finish before Watkins Glen meant his challenge was "fizzling" according to Gordon. Clutching at straws, perhaps chaps?

No, the really big fascination is how Busch is slowly turning the jeers to cheers with every trip to Victory Lane (and he has also chalked up another eight wins in the Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck championship).

He remains staunchly aloof from any obvious crowd-pleasing antics (in fact, his routine of an exaggerated bow to the crowd and displaying the number of wins on his hands to them suggests he is now enjoying the baiting aspect of this relationship) and is seemingly oblivious to the boos that ring out (boos that stem largely from his notorious brush with crowd favourite Dale Earnhardt Jnr earlier this season, but also from his unwavering desire to finish first at all costs).

There can be little doubt he is still firmly fixed on showing his previous bosses at Hendrick Motorsports they were wrong to let him go in favour of Junior, and this has been one of his principal motivations all year.

But his driving is about a lot more than just 'Yah! Boo! Sucks!' And the fairly educated NASCAR followers are finally starting to see him as more than just 'Vile Kyle'.

The Watkins Glen faithful certainly offered a fair smattering of hearty cheers to go along with the boo birds, and there was nothing new in Busch's post-race demeanour that suggested he is in any way interested in offering an olive branch to those who see him as the sport's Evil Empire.

The message seems pretty simple: No compromises, no changes; what you see is what you get. And what you currently get is arguably the most dominant driver of the past 10 years.

Gordon's comments? Dismissed with a grin - and win No 8. Johnson's jibes? Well, we'll see around November 16 when this year's Sprint Cup champ is crowned after the Ford 400 in Miami. But don't expect much in the way of a verbal response to any of the chattering. Rowdy simply takes it all in his ever-lengthening stride and answers them all where it counts most - on the track.

In the meantime, it must be intensely infuriating to his rivals (and especially those at Hendrick, whose four drivers occupy three of the top six spots at the moment) that the more they try to chip away at his armour, the more solid he appears and the tougher he is to beat.

This weekend's race should mark another step in Rowdy's triumphal march to proving all and sundry wrong about him and his spiky temperament (which was, ultimately, the reason Hendrick found him so difficult to work with). This is a different Kyle Busch to previous seasons, one with the right equipment under him and the right personnel behind him.

For Joe Gibbs Racing - and their controversial switch to the Toyota car - it has been a breathtaking ride so far.

Now, if Busch could just up the ante a little in the 'villain' stakes and fire off a few well-placed jabs of his own, NASCAR could really have a character worth following!