Newspaper Page Text
Friday, December 11,2015
Lake Oconee News
Page C7
SPEED FREAKS
A couple questions
we had to ask —
ourselves
Danica Patrick’s
newest
GODSPEAK: Third
crew chief in four
years. Crew chief
No. 1, Tony Gibson,
took Kurt Busch to
the Chase this year.
KEN’S CALL: It’S
starting to take on
the feel of a dial-
a-date, isn’t it?
I’m saying nothing
much changes.
Same question for
Tony Stewart.
GODSPEAK: The 2015
season for Stewart
was an anomaly.
New crew chief and
new energy will
revive the old ver
sion of Tony.
KEN’S CALL: I’m
beginning to think
Godwin has a
secret No. 14 tattoo
somewhere. Ain’t
looking. And don’t
expect Tony to sud
denly find the old
magic.
Mission accomplished
Busch’s battle
ends in glory
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch poses in front of the iconic “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign
during NASCAR Champion’s Week. nascar via getty images/streeter lecka
If there was a Most
Popular Driver alter
native to Junior, who
would it be?
GODSPEAK: Sur
prised Jeff Gordon
didn’t get it. My
runner-up choice
would be Clint
Bowyer.
KEN’S CALL: This
past year, Jeff
Gordon. Otherwise,
like it or not, it’s
Danica.
If you’re Kyle Busch,
do you save the rod
they’ll pull from your
leg?
GODSPEAK: Most
drivers keep the
hardware doctors
pull out of their
bodies. Probably
headed to Busch’s
trophy case.
KEN’S CALL: If big
enough, it becomes
a fire poker.
ONLINE EXTRAS
news-journalonline.
com/nascar
D facebook.com/
nascardaytona
(Dnascardaytona
Questions? Contact
Godwin Kelly at godwin.
kelly@news-jrnl.com or
Ken Willis at ken.willis@
news-jrnl.com
Busch battles back
from leg injuries to be
crowned NASCAR Cup
champion
By Godwin Kelly
godwin.kelly@news-jrnl.com
It is an improbable storyline:
Driver seriously injured, misses li
Cup races, then roars back to win
the coveted NASCAR champion
ship. Kyle Busch lived it and made
it happen.
At the start of the season,
nobody gave Kyle Busch a chance
to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series championship, given the
fact he watched the Daytona 500
from a Daytona Beach hospital
bed.
Busch overcame his injuries,
then overcame a stellar group
of stock-car competitors to
reach the championship table
at Friday’s Cup Series Awards
Ceremonies.
“It’s been truly remarkable,”
Busch said.
The 30-year-old driver broke
his left foot and right leg after his
car smashed into an inside retain
ing wall at Daytona International
Speedway 10 laps from the finish
of the Speedweeks Xfinity race on
the day before the 500.
Busch missed the first 11
Cup Series races of the season,
returning May 24 for the C oca-
Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor
Speedway.
Soon after, NASCAR Chair
man and CEO Brian Franee ruled
that if Busch won a race and was
among the top 30 in points by
the end of the regular season, he
could participate in the Chase
playoffs.
The order seemed daunting, if
not impossible.
Godwin Kelly is the Daytona
Beach News-Journal’s motors-
ports editor and has
covered NASCAR
for 30 years.
Reach him at
godwin.kelly@
news-jrnl.com
In his fifth start of the season
at Sonoma Raceway on June 28,
Busch got that win; then for good
measure, he scored three more in
his next four Cup starts.
He made it through to the
Championship Round at
Homestead-Miami Speedway
with consistent finishes, then
earned the crown by winning
the Ford EcoBoost 400, just one
position in front of 2014 cham
pion Kevin Harvick.
It’s the stuff of fairy tales.
Busch, who drives the No. 18
Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, became
the first driver in NASCAR’s
modern history (since 1972) to win
the championship without starting
every race on the schedule.
Not only that, but he nabbed
Toyota’s first championship since
the car maker joined the series in
2007. Toyota has poured millions
and millions and millions of dollars
into this effort and only found suc
cess after partnering with Gibbs.
Fittingly, it was Busch who
scored Toyota’s first Cup Series
victory in 2008 at Atlanta Motor
Speedway.
The championship put Busch
in elite company. Busch and his
brother Kurt join Terry and Bobby
Labonte as the only brothers to
earn Cup Series titles. Kurt wonhis
in 2004, the first year the Chase
playoffs were introduced.
It’s been a whirlwind experience
for Kyle Busch, who has been a Cup
regular since 2005, when he joined
up with Hendrick Motorsports,
where he would get the boot two
years later to make room for Dale
Earnhardt Jr.
Everybody knows Busch can
drive a race car. But nobody
expected to see him at the cham
pion’s table in Las Vegas.
“I don’t knowthat anybody
could have ever dreamt of this year
especially, but to have dreamt of
my career path the way it’s Icind
of gone, it’s certainly amazing to
have the opportunity right now to
be in this position with Joe Gibbs, ”
Busch said.
Gibbs boasts four Cup champi
onships with three drivers.
“It’s athrill,” Gibbs said. “It’s
been 10 years since we won one.”
Now that the 2015 season is
officially over, Busch is scheduled
to head back into the operating
room on Dec. 17 to have the metal
hardware extracted from his foot
and leg.
The leg surgery will be the most
dramatic.
“Just having to re -go through
the knee and to cut the knee open
again in order to pull the rod out,
that’s going to be the most trau
matic part,” he said.
He will be in rehab right up
to the start of 2016 Daytona
Speedweeks.
Before heading back to the
hospital, Busch plans to just
enjoy the moment and soak in his
accomplishments.
“It’s definitely caught up with
everyone saying ‘champion’ or
calling me ‘champ’ or introducing
me as the 2015 NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series champion,” Busch
said. “I’ve heard it a lot this week,
and it’s really, really awesome
to hear that. I’m pumped and
couldn’t be more elated.”
QUESTIONS & ATTITUDE
Compelling questions... and maybe a
few actual answers
What will I do for NASCAR news?
It’s as close as we get to NASCAR hanging a
“Gone fishing” sign on the door.
Now what?
After 36 races, a goodbye to Jeff Gordon and
congratulations to Kyle Busch, and with only
about two months until the engines crank at
Daytona, you need more right now? These da
this is the closest thing NASCAR has to a dark
season. But there’ll be news.
What sort of news?
NASCAR’s corner-office suits are huddling
with the boys in legal to find a feasible way
to turn its race teams into something resem
bling franchises, which would break from the
independent-contractor system that served
the purposes since the late-’40s. Well, it serve
NASCAR’s purposes, along with owners and
drivers who ran fast enough to escape credit!
But times have changed; you’ll soon be readir
a lot about men named Rob Kauffman and Br
Dewar and something called the Race Team /
liance.
Will it affect the race fans and the
racing?
Nope. So maybe you shouldn’t pay attention.
Unless you like watching the Ralph Lauren
crowd sending their lawyers into battle fully
armed with briefcases full of “whereas” and
“therefore.”
Any good news?
There was some griping about Kyle Busch wii
ning the championship even though he misse
11 races. But there didn’t seem to be much re
sentment to Toyota winning its first Cup Serie
title. Oh wait, is that really progress? Maybe
it infers that all of the old-school NASCAR lif
ers have quit caring about such things. If the^
no longer have enough emotion to get workei
up over Toyota, that’s worrisome. Maybe this
stirred them up.
Ken Willis has been
covering NASCAR for
The Daytona Beach
News-Journal for 27
years. Reach him at ke
willis@news-jrnl.com
NASCAR CHAMPION
NASCAR Stats: Cup Series all-time
statistical updates
Another NASCAR season means updates to
the record book. Jeff Gordon, who retired as a
full-time Cup Series driver after competing thi
year, topped two all-time records. Here are a
few select categories that changed after the
2015 season:
Consecutive Cup starts (active drivers)
Jeff Gordon 797 Jimmie Johnson 504
Ryan Newman 504 Kevin Harvick 496
Jamie McMurray 472 Greg Biffle 465
Kasey Kahne 432
All-time consecutive years with a pole
Jeff Gordon, 23 seasons, 1993-2015
David Pearson, 20,1963-1982
Richard Petty, 18,1960-1977
Darrell Waltrip, 13,1974-1986
Bill Elliott, 12,1984-1995
All-time race winners
Richard Petty 200, David Pearson 105,
Jeff Gordon 93, Bobby Allison 84,
Darrell Waltrip 84 Cale Yarborough 83
Dale Earnhardt 76, Jimmie Johnson 75,
Rusty Wallace 55, Lee Petty 54,
Ned Jarrett 50, Junior Johnson 50,
Tony Stewart 48, Herb Thomas 48
Buck Baker 46 Bill Elliott 44,
Mark Martin 40, Tim Flock 39,
Bobby Isaac 37, Matt Kenseth 36,
Kyle Busch 34, Fireball Roberts 33,
Dale Jarrett 32, Kevin Harvick 31,
Rex White 28
Other active drivers:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26 Denny Hamlin 26,
Carl Edwards 25
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