Boogity, Boogity, Boogity Waltrip tells NASCAR Bubbas how to think
When Darrell Waltrip isn’t raving about NASCAR’s Gen 6 race car, he’s busy praising/defending Kyle Busch. Or telling us how great Danica Patrick is doing. It’s gotten to the point where it is ruining the race.
Saturday night Waltrip spent the first couple of hundred miles of the Darlington 500 talking about what a great race it was (if you were watching, you know it wasn’t) because the new cars could run low on the track. Fans know a good race when they see it, they don’t have to be told. And fans are used to long green flag runs at the start of Darlington. They know the action is packed into the final 100 miles. But it’s an insult to be repeatedly told what a great race we’re watching when clearly it isn’t.
Then Waltrip and his cohorts went on and on about how much race leader Busch has changed this year, how much more mature he is and how badly Busch felt about crashing Kasey Kahne at Talladega the week before. And after Busch caused Kahne to crash again, Waltrip spent the rest of the race saying the pair never touched and it wasn’t Kyle’s fault. Kahne didn’t see it that way.
"He blew that entry into one," Kahne said after the race. "I was like, ‘Oh shoot, oh shoot.' The car moved and then just spun out. I don't know if he actually touched me or not. If he would have just entered normal like he entered the whole race there would have been no issues and I would have been leading off two. He just didn't want that to happen, so he blew turn one. Whether he hit me or not, he still caused that whole deal with screwing up and just mind fade. He's had a few of them this year when I've been around him.
“He needs to quit. I’ve never touched the guy in my life as far as on the race track."
I couldn’t tell if the two touched or not. And I don’t blame Busch for racing him hard. But I don’t want to listen to Waltrip defending Busch for the rest of the race either.
We don't know how Busch felt. He spent the final laps of the race yelling at his crew over the radio as his car slowed, later traced to a cut tire. The more “mature" Busch bolted afterwards without talking to reporters, leaving it to crew chief Dave Rogers to defend his driver (again).
“He's pretty tore up that they're racing hard and Kahne tore up another car," Rogers said. “This is the third time we've been involved in an incident with Kasey and all of us over here have a ton or respect for that program. Kyle thinks the world of Kasey Kahne.
But again, this isn’t about Busch. He behaved just as we have become to expect him to behave. More at AutoRacingReview