Busch has character
There was something in the air Thursday at the Pole Position Raceway go-karting center in Las Vegas. It wasn't as much for challenging my media brethren on the track (I couldn't because certain necessary equipment wouldn't fit), but there was the chance to talk to the man who played the unlikeliest of parts in giving Ryan Newman his Daytona 500 win last Sunday.
Kurt Busch didn't have the greatest of Speedweeks at Daytona. He got into another bumping fracas with Tony Stewart — "good for the TV ratings," he said — had to start dead-last, using a past champion's provisional, and didn't look like he had much of a shot to do much of anything.
But thanks to a rare trait in drivers called patience, Busch somehow managed to get to the front.
"You had to pick your spots out there," he said. "I couldn't move too fast (through the field) without causing problems."
To say the Car of Tomorrow/Today helped is pretty accurate - maybe because the car took the proverbial licking and kept on ticking.
Now with Las Vegas less than a week away, Busch will be tested as the rest of his compadres run their first competition laps on an intermediate track.
Don't be surprised if we see more fireworks in the days ahead. With Fox's ratings up from last year's Daytona 500, the excitement for this season has just begun to build.
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