Could Kyle Busch channel Dale Earnhardt in next year's Daytona 500?
Kyle Busch entered Sunday’s Daytona 500 ready to start a new season with a new team.
Unfortunately for him, his end result in the “Great American Race” was predictably familiar.
Sunday marked Busch’s 19th start in the 500. Yet once again, the driver who has won nearly everything there is to win in NASCAR, fell just short of checking off the final box on his “to-do” list.
But Busch wasn’t just an also-ran in Sunday’s race. In fact, he was in the hunt all the way to the end.
And had it not been for NASCAR’s overtime rules, he likely would have won the damn thing.
“Back in 1998, that would be the win, boys!” Busch told his team when the caution came out on lap 200.
Busch was referring to the famous 1998 edition of the race where, after 20 frustrating years, Dale Earnhardt finally won the race that eluded him for so long.
While most certainly intentional, Busch’s comments have brought attention to how similar his career so far has been to Earnhardt’s when it comes to running in the 500.
Earnhardt’s son, Dale Jr., might have taken over as the face of NASCAR for nearly two decades after his father's death, but when it comes to spiritual successors, I’d argue no driver has been able to replicate Sr.’s aggressive driving style as well as Busch.
Both drivers were in a situation where they had won everything BUT the Daytona 500 and both were once considered the “villain” of NASCAR (yes, believe it or not, there was once a time when Dale Earnhardt got more boos than cheers).
The similarities became even more noticeable when Busch signed on to drive a black Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing for the 2003 season and beyond last September, when it was clear Joe Gibbs Racing was more interested in promoting Joe's grandson, Ty, than keeping a two-time Cup champ and the winningest overall driver in NASCAR history (224 combined wins across the Cup, Xfinity and Truck series).
Sure, the sponsor and the number are different (Busch’s teammate Austin Dillon drives the No. 3 that Earnhardt made famous). But when you see Busch’s No. 8 3CHI Chevy racing from a distance, you can’t tell me that it doesn’t remind you of the GM Goodwrench machine that “the Intimidator” once drove.
But back to Busch’s result in the 500. It was disappointing to say the least. He was running fifth with one lap to go in the final overtime restart when he has taken out in a crash and had to settle for a 19th-place finish.
When asked if he could describe what happened, he simply said “I don’t know."
He then added, “I just tried to keep it straight as much as I can and wait for when it’s going to happen and eventually it does, and it did again today. So, I tried, and I don’t know what else to do. Come up short.”
Not the fondest fan of superspeedway racing, Busch said that he was “definitely excited for the start of the season and getting to the real racetracks,” referring to tracks like this weekend’s stop at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, that do not produce pack racing like Daytona.
After Fontana will come Vegas, then Phoenix, and so on. The sting of another bad finish will eventually wear off. With as busy of a schedule as they have, NASCAR drivers don’t really have much time to mull things anyways.
But just because he had another poor result at Daytona this year doesn’t mean Busch will never win NASCAR’s biggest race.
Let’s not forget, it took the elder Earnhardt 20 years before he finally won the sport's biggest race.
Next year will mark Kyle Busch’s 20th attempt at winning the Daytona 500. If history has a way of repeating things, perhaps we’ll see the driver nicknamed “Rowdy” -- in an RCR Chevy, no less -- doing burnouts in Daytona’s infield grass.