Kyle Busch’s comeback is now
officially the stuff of legends.
He is the Boston Red Sox, overcoming an 0-3 deficit with four consecutive
wins to beat the rival New York Yankees for the 2004 American League
championship, just days before claiming a long-awaited World Series victory with
a four-game sweep of the Cardinals.
He is Willis Reed in Game Seven of the 1970 NBA Finals, hobbling onto the court for the opening tap and gritting his teeth
through a badly torn thigh muscle to lead his New York Knicks to the league
championship.
He is backup quarterback
Frank Reich, replacing Hall Of Famer Jim Kelly and leading the Buffalo Bills
out of a 32-point second-half hole, en route to a 38-35 OT win and a spot in
their third consecutive Super Bowl.
He is Michael
Jordan, returning from a 17-month stint on the baseball diamond to lead the
Chicago Bulls to yet another NBA title; all the while looking like he had never
missed so much as a shoot-around.
By now, now fans know Busch’s
story by heart. He missed the first 11 races of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
campaign with a compound fracture of his right leg and a broken left foot suffered
in a savage XFINITY Series crash at Daytona International Speedway in February.
The beneficiary of solid orthopedic surgery, a dedicated rehabilitation program
and an uncanny ability to heal on the fly, he returned on May 24 at Charlotte
Motor Speedway with a steady – if not spectacular – 1th-place showing. A pair
of crashes at Daytona and Michigan slowed his roll temporarily, but an unlikely
June 28 win on the Sonoma road course triggered a five-week run of dominance that
has seldom been equaled in the history of the Sprint Cup Series.
Four victories in those last
five weeks – at Sonoma, Kentucky, New
Hampshire and Indy – have boosted Busch from “unlikely longshot” to “championship
contender.” Sunday, he became the first driver to win three consecutive Sprint Cup
races since Jimmie Johnson in 2007, and if his hot streak continues much
longer, he can add the work “favorite” to his resume, as well.
"I
can't believe this run,” said a beaming Busch, moments after the
customary post-race kissing of the IMS bricks. “I just can't believe what's going on. I’m still
in shock. I’m still in shock from last week. It all goes by so fast. Every
week, it’s `on to the next (race)… on to the next one.’ I said after New
Hampshire that nothing would be more impressive to me than winning with all
three different aero packages in as many weeks, and now we did it.”
In the aftermath of his
Indianapolis triumph, Busch has now claimed as many checkered flags in just nine
starts as multi-time champion Johnson has managed in 20. His four victories are
at least twice as many as every other competitor, and he now trails 30th-place
Justin Algaier by just 23 points in his quest for the all-important 30th spot
and a place in the 2015 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
The question
is no longer “can Kyle Busch crack the Top-30 in points?”
It is now, “will he do it
this week, or next?”
“It’s one of the best
stories I’ve been around in sports,” said car owner Joe Gibbs, who witnessed a
few Cinderella stories in his 16-year tenure as head coach of the NFL’s
Washington Redskins. “The agony of the first part of the year, the tragedy he
went through; how many guys come back from that? He’s going up against the best
people (in the sport) and he’s performing. It’s not often you get to be a part
of something like this, and I just thank him for letting us be a part of it.
“We were behind at the
start of the season, and we spent half a year getting caught up engine-wise,
chassis-wise and aero-wise. But now we’re there.”
Crew chief Adam Stevens agreed, saying the No.
18 Toyota team is ready to contend for the title.
"We've had
some good fortune (this season), but today we flat-out earned it," said the
rookie pit boss. "It's a championship run. We're transitioning from making
the Chase to trying to win the championship."
"Maybe I found my happy
place," admitted Busch, his bright red fire suit soaked with a glorious combination
of perspiration and Victory Lane Gatorade. "This has been a phenomenal
return. I guess I'll take (an) 11-week vacation any year, if it's going to look
like this.”
He done good. Again. This time he has a bow stabilizer in his life. Years from now when his son looks at the pictures of himself sitting on the bricks, maybe he'll understand what has happened here today. I'm just glad to have been here to see it.
ReplyDeletePS
Who called Coach after the race to talk to Kyle?
Kyle Busch usually fades hard over the last 10 races of the year. By my calculation, the fade should now start December 1. (He should do this every year, and start his Cup schedule 10 races after Daytona).
ReplyDeleteAll kidding aside, this should finally convince Kyle to cut back Xfinity & Truck races if he wants a Cup title. #NoFade
I have higher hopes this year for a championship than in 2009 i think it was, when he had all those wins heading into the chase.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, Nascar I ain't buying any of it. Nascar loves it's "feel good" story. Nope..something definitely is going on, if one believe all this..then God bless. I don't. Years and years of Nascar manipulation and the love of "feel good" big stories, has made me a skeptic along with rule changes on the fly (Cue the Batman graphics and sound) we have this nonsense to believe. Yup o.k. Toyota has invested heavily, maybe they told Old Joe and BZF they were taking a walk? Just sayin...
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