Rainy Sunday’s Make Me Mad
Monday, June 30th, 2008By Steve Parker
Kurt Busch’s win Sunday at New Hampshire made me mad. Not because I hate Kurt Busch or anything. But I do hate seeing somebody win that really had no business doing so. And what aggravates me more is when that driver, in his post race interview, acts like he somehow DID deserve to win because of his team’s brilliant strategy.
I realize that winning is the only thing that matters and you do anything and everything to put your car in Victory Lane. For doing that, Busch and crew chief Pat Tryson deserve credit. But man, talk about stealing one.
Busch was running 18th, 18th!! About where he’d run most of the day. Then the 17 cars in front of him all had to hit pit road for fuel with 29 laps to go. Tryson knew he didn’t have a car capable of competing on this day and the only chance for a good finish was roll the fuel strategy dice.
Tryson had already made up his mind that he would leave the 2 car on the track no matter what and stretch their fuel to the end. But things worked out even better when rain halted the event after just a few more laps of green flag racing. Busch didn’t have to worry about holding off the many cars that had been faster than him all day.
So Busch lucks into a win. I hate to see that. Lots of guys have won on fuel mileage and luck. But rarely has a car that was so deep in the field all day been able to pull it off. And Tony Stewart deserved to win that race. He clearly had the best car and has had so much bad luck. But things like that happen in racing. I do wish that Busch would have acted…..I don’t know, a little guiltier in his post-race comments. I would have loved to have seen him admit that his car was junk and they stole a win they didn’t otherwise deserve.
It is sometimes better to be lucky than good, (which Busch DID say) but thankfully it is rare to see a car that far from good get that lucky.
