DON’T COUNT BRUISED KYLE OUT JUST YET

He may have had an awful start to the chase but you cant count him out. Look what his team accomplished in the first year with JGR, he had something to prove and he has proven it. Never know this might have put more fire in his belly (I hope). With nine races left Kyle has a pretty good track record at 7 of the tracks. Kyle has 4 wins, Dover, Dega, Atlanta, and Phoenix. Lowe’s he has 9 starts and 3 top 10s, Martinsville 7 start with 4 top 10s, and at Texas 6 starts with 2 top 5s. Not to bad

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INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT KYLE AND HIS WINS THIS YEAR

Kyle hasn't won two races with the same sponsor/paint scheme yet this year:

CUP
Atlanta with snickers
Talladega with M&M's
Darlington with Indiana Jones
Dover with Combos

Nation wide
Texas with DLP HDTV
Phoenix with Interstate Batteries
Mexico City with Doosan Infracore
Charlotte with Dollar General

Truck
California with Can Bernerdino County
Atlanta with Miccosukee Resorts

Guess what Busch fans or haters, this weekend he'll be running a different paint scheme on his Cup car. Could he get another win? I hope

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• Kyle Busch, The Shrub Club

KYLE BUSCH FAN'S PERSPECTIVE--

He Who Must Not Be Raced: A Kyle Busch Fan's Perspective
by Guest Contributor: Mary Beth Voelker

People keep griping about Kyle Busch's attitude. Well, what sort of attitude do you expect him to have after the way fans have treated him for the past six years?

If Kyle Busch has a chip on his shoulder and a tendency to get defensive it's no wonder. People have been booing at him for as long as he's been in NASCAR -- just because he had the wrong last name and drove for the wrong owner. If his name was Kyle Smith and he'd started with Gibbs instead of Hendrick he'd be everyone's darling for his talent, his humor, and his sense of fun. Instead, he's been chained to a load of undeserved baggage from the start.

Kyle knows that nothing he has ever done has made any difference in the booing -- it started before people even knew who he was as an individual and has continued no matter what. He makes a mistake and wrecks, people boo. He makes a daring pass and wins, people boo. He gives the purse from his first Cup win to the hurricane victims, people still boo. If you treated a dog that way -- beating him for obedience and defiance alike -- you'd create a vicious and untrustworthy biter.

It's no wonder Kyle has developed an in-your-face attitude about the boos and hides the hurt behind sarcastic humor. It's a testament to his own good character that he hasn't either cut his throat in despair or turned into the monster he's so often accused of being.

So Kyle Busch dared race hard against none other than Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. last Saturday night -- on a short track with the checkered flag in sight no less. Didn't he know that was Junior's race? That from the moment Denny's tire started leaking it was Dale Jr. who had the right to take that checkered flag?

When did Big E's son become He Who Must Not Be Raced? And when did race fans start expecting drivers to apologize for racing hard and going for the win in the final laps? Isn't the thrill of seeing drivers entering a turn side-by-side and not knowing who, if anyone, is going to come out still pointed forward what short-track racing all about?

The fans and sportswriters who complain about Kyle are hypocrites. They claim to want drivers with fire. They claim to want an end to political correctness and corporate robot personalities. They claim to want "door-banging action". They gripe that the Bristol repaving job took away the bump and run. They praise "short track tempers". They cry out for a driver who will go for the win instead of racing for points.

And then they turn around and crucify Kyle Busch for giving them exactly what they said they wanted.

Better that the Cult of Earnhardt look to their own, beloved idol for an example. Dale Earnhardt Jr., man of good character that he is, said that he'd have been a hypocrite to complain -- because he'd done the same to Kyle last year. A simple racing incident that took Kyle out of Championship contention in the Chase.

NASCAR is not a popularity contest. NASCAR is a performance contest. It's about winning races and Championships, not about how many cheer and how many boo. If the day should ever come that drivers start backing down and not daring to race Dale Jr. for fear of what his fans might do then it will be a sad and sorry day for NASCAR.

I dare say that Dale Jr. himself might consider an early retirement lest the sport he's loved all his life be perverted in that fashion.

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• Kyle Busch