I'm Just Sayin'...
By Matthew Scott

Kurt Busch is the ultimate NASCAR teammate
Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Who would have guessed that, huh?

Seriously, take every negative thought you have ever had, every niggling complaint, criticism, insult, or untoward idea about Kurt Busch (and believe me, more than a fair share of the above has come from this corner of the room), and toss it in the same gigantic trash bin that currently houses the shattered Daytona dreams of Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, and Team Hendrick. This morning, and forevermore, Ryan Newman is a Daytona 500 champion thanks to one simple, irrefutable fact.

Kurt Busch is one fantastic teammate.

Think back to the closing laps of the 2005 Great American Race; Jeff Gordon leads with a pack that includes Junior, Stewart, and Jimmie Johnson breathing down his neck. But when the freight train makes its move, there's Busch, at the time, the defending Cup champion, moving up to steal the push, kill the momentum, and plant his front fender on Gordon's rear bumper, pushing them to a one-two finish. Now you can say that's not teamwork, since Gordon and Busch aren't on the same team, but friends, when you rocket into turn 3 at Daytona nose to tail like that, if you ain't a team at that point, you ain't never gonna be one, you know what I mean?

Now, fast forward to Sunday. Stewart and a dominant Kyle Busch have worked 498 miles to put themselves in perfect position, running first and second down the backstretch on lap 200. That's what you had to have to win this thing, the experts said, a buddy, a pal, a TEAMMATE. The Gibbs-Toyota express was on the cusp of history, when suddenly, here came a gaggle of streaking Dodges, with Newman and Busch leading the charge. Stewart stayed low, proving himself to be a good teammate, as well (one wonders if the younger Busch bro would have shown Stewart the same courtesy if the roles had been reversed), which opened the door for the Penske duo. Busch planted the front of the blue deuce on Newman's bumper, and never, not for a nanosecond, flinched, wavered, or hesitated. He was committed to getting his teammate across the line first.

This isn't some run-of-the-mill race in the middle of a long season we're talking about, folks. This is the 50th running of the Daytona 500. This is about more than a trophy. This is about racing immortality. And it was one pass away for Kurt Busch. Busch would have been well within his rights to pull out of line, go for the win himself. It's the first of thirty-six races; if he fails and drops a few spots, there's plenty of time to make up those points, right? But he didn't. He planted himself behind Newman, and pushed Newman and car owner Roger Penske into Daytona's Victory Lane for the first time. And, if you notice, with just a few hundred yards to the checkers, as Stewart appeared ready to make one last-gasp move, Busch moved down again, chopping off any thoughts Stewart had of pulling off a miracle.

Need another example of Busch's commitment to the team? Look back about two hundred yards. That number 77 car, the third Penske entry, the one being piloted by Sam Hornish? That car is only in the field because Busch, the guy with eight seasons, 17 career Cup wins, and the 2004 Winston/Nextel/Sprint Cup championship gave up his guaranteed starting spot, courtesy of Nascar's Top-35 rule, and agreed to use the past champions provisional, if necessary (and it was) to make the field in the season's first five races. Not too shabby for the guy once synonymous with the "The World Owes Me Something" generation.

Kurt Busch has been called a lot of things in his racing career; arrogant, smug, difficult, pompous. You can add "great teammate" to that list.

And someday, you can bet, "Daytona 500 Champion" will be added, too.

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