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When will Kyle Busch get it?

He's been hailed by some in the NASCAR media as a great driver this year, his first with Joe Gibbs Racing, and indeed, he's had some solid results, having won two Cup races, three Nationwide series races, and two Craftsman truck already in 2008.

But the wins have routinely come as the result of reckless driving. Now, I'm not talking calculated aggression, as we used to see practiced by Dale Earnhardt. Like him or not, you had to know "Big E" knew exactly what he was doing, and got the finishes he wanted by driving the way he did.

You don't get that sense of purpose from 23-year-old Kyle Busch. Week in and out, he drives a car that's so loose, he nearly loses control lap after lap, until he finally wrecks, or the car breaks. Sometimes, wrecking someone leads to a win, sometimes it doesn't.

Saturday, his inevitable contact with Dale Earnhardt, Jr as the pair battled for the lead in the closing laps at Richmond didn't give him the win--Clint Bowyer took it away--but it did cause Junior to end up with a 16th place finish.

Even Fox announcer Darrell Waltrip, whose unabashed excitement over Busch's performance early this season was becoming tiresome, has toned down his cheerleading in the wake of several events that demonstrate Busch isn't just a "checkers or wreckers" racer, he's sloppy and doesn't care who he hits in the process of making his run.

A couple of weeks ago, Busch made this evident in a Craftsman Truck series race, when he became so impatient with his inability to pass on the racing surface, he ran below the yellow line and hit Colin Braun, who was on the apron, heading for pit road. In Martinsville, at another truck race, he was running third on the final lap when he decided to pass second-place Johnny Benson when there was no room, and ended up causing both of them to crash. They finished 25th and 26th.

Busch loves to drive a car that's set up to be as loose as possible, and he usually can recover it when the car starts to slide. Problem is, he can't always save it, and this is when he drags other drivers into trouble. Saturday night, his car was so loose, that as Junior passed him on the outside of a turn, he couldn't keep the 18 car from sliding up and spinning the 88.

The TV guys are calling him "Wild Child," now, which fits, although it is a rather flippant name for a guy who takes out other drivers because he can't control his car or his emotions. Several writers expressed admiration for the way he saved his car after running into Jamie McMurray at Talladega, conveniently forgetting that, if Busch hadn't hit McMurray in the first place, a "save" would not have been required.

Oddly, when Steven Wallace (who has had his own problems running cleanly this year) hit in the final lap of Friday's Nationwide race, Busch was angry. Apparently, only Busch himself is allowed to make sloppy moves that ruin other drivers' days.

After Saturday night's race, Busch said he"didn't appreciate" Junior's crewman, Rick Pidgeon, coming over to his car to complain about the wreck. As usual, Busch said he was sorry and that it was just a "racing deal," the code for "I don't want to take responsibility for my actions."

There was a time he'd have been taken to task--on the track--by more experienced drivers for his inability (or unwillingness) to drive cleanly.

Kyle Busch is lucky those days are over.

Let me be clear: What Michael Waltrip did to Casey Mears Saturday night was wrong.

It was unsafe, for starters.

And I don't believe Mears ran the 55 into the fence intentionally, so Mikey was even more wrong for shoving him down the track afterwards, if that was his motivation.

But.

Isn't this what fans have been clamoring for lately? I've seen some angry comments, mostly in the "how could Michael do that to poor nice-guy Casey?" category, which is kind of ironic, given how much complaining there's been over the past few years about drivers not being allowed to have emotions and get angry without fear of reprisal from NASCAR.

Michael's reaction was driven by 100% pure, raw anger. He'd been having a bad day and had been having some nasty shouting matches with Bobby Kennedy over the radio. His car wasn't handling well, but he'd managed to keep it in the top-30 or better for most of the race, which, while it wasn't competitive, at least helps him stay in the top 35 in owner points.

Then, out of nowhere, Mears smacked him, sending him into the wall.

And, apparently, that's when the emotion race fans say they want to see took over.

Michael hit the gas and ran into the 5 car, pushing him down the backstretch, from the rear, sparks flying.

A minute later, Waltrip got on his radio and, first, claimed he'd had a stuck throttle, which wasn't supported by the in-car camera's tape (you could hear the engine rev up and then down again), then switched stories and suggested he'd accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake.

It didn't matter. The call to penalize him for retaliating and to park him for the rest of the race had already been made.

That was the right call, of course. He protested it, saying, "That's a pretty harsh decision against a guy who doesn't usually get mad on the track," which may be true, but he'd done it this time.

Now we'll wait and see if NASCAR adds more penalties Tuesday. The 55 is sitting in 33rd place in the points with 760, and even a small deduction will really hurt, dropping the car below 757, which is where the 77 sits in 35th.

Meanwhile, fans should be happy that they finally got to see some of the raw emotion they say disappeared from the Cup series a while ago, right?

Watch what you wish for...

We're roughly a third of the way into the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, and there have certainly been some surprises. Four wins for Toyota, and only one for Hendrick, just to name a couple. So, as we head into the All-Star Race, (which, you will recall, is "only on SPEED"), let's break it down with the top 12 drivers, and a couple of notable selections.

1. Kyle Busch Grade: A
Call him "Rowdy," "Wild Thing," or anything else you can think of, just remember to call him a winner. Three victories, seven top-5's so far, including Toyota’s first win at Atlanta. The junior Busch proves week in and week out he's a favorite to win the race--F he doesn't wreck the field first.

2. Jeff Burton Grade: A
Can anyone be sitting second in points, with 1 win under his belt, and be this quiet? Being in the right place at the right time helps, so does having no finishes worse than 13th.

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Grade: B
Despite not winning a points race so far in 2008, Junior Nation has to be happy with the driver of the 88 Chevy. His move to Hendrick Motorsports started with a win at the Bud Shootout and a Gatorade Duel, but bad luck (and help from Kyle Busch) has kept NASCAR's Most Popular Driver from visiting Victory Lane. Don't worry Junior fans, he'll be there soon.

4. Denny Hamlin Grade: B+
After a win at Martinsville, followed by a heartbreaking finish at Richmond, Virginia's new favorite son finds himself in the top four of the Sprint Cup standings. A 41st place finish at California is the only blemish to his great start so far.

5. Clint Boyer Grade B
Boyer's having a great run during his third full season in NASCAR’s biggest series. A 1st, 2nd and a 3rd in just the first 11 races, the future is bright for one of NASCAR's up and comers.

6. Jimmie Johnson Grade B-
The two-time defending champion is finding things are not that easy in 2008. His fuel mileage victory at Phoenix is Hendrick Motorsports' only victory. But if history has taught us a lesson, you don't want to see the 48 team on the ropes come Chase time, because watch out, they know how to roll.

7. Carl Edwards Grade: A-
One of the big surprises this season. Three quick wins, but the suspension of Crew Chief Bob Osborne is what everybody will remember. How can you feel bad for this team, when they got Robbie Reiser for six races?

8. Tony Stewart Grade: C+
Smoke has to be one of the biggest disappointments of the season. The leader of Joe Gibbs Racing has yet to visit Victory Lane, while his teammates already have four wins. Smoke is making more headlines for his comments about Goodyear than for his racing. Maybe driving an eggplant-colored car would make him the bold racer he's been in the past.

9. Kevin Harvick Grade: C-
"Happy" Harvick cannot be smiling so far in 2008. Just two top-5's and five top-10's--that's not what you would expect from last year's Daytona 500 champ. And Lowes Motor Speedway has not been kind to the 29 crew.

10. Jeff Gordon Grade: C+
Is it surprising that in the first 11 weeks of the season, the four-time champ has only been in the top 12 for two weeks? It's been a rough couple of months for the leader of the "Hendrick Superstars." Maybe that hard hit during the Las Vegas race knocked the wind out of this team.

11. Greg Biffle Grade: C
A couple of third and fourth place finishes for "Biff" have him sitting just inside the top 12. He's been falling back after a strong start, but don't expect this NASCAR free agent to sit back and relax--he's got something to prove.

12. David Ragan Grade: B+
His could be the best story of the early season. Ragan was 42nd in points after the Daytona 500, and look where he is now. Jack Roush should be pleased. Ragan just needed time to grow. Could he be this season's Casey Mears?

Other Notables

17. Brian Vickers Grade: B+
Quite a turnaround in 2008. After missing several races last year, Team Red Bull has kept the 83 car in the top 20, to the surprise of many. If they can duplicate their early successes, look for this car to be locked into the 50th running of the Great American Race.

Michael Waltrip Racing (29-David Reutimann, 32 -Michael Waltrip, 43-Michael McDowell, 44-Dale Jarrett) Grade: B-
Another success story. This team knows nothing but controversy, but somehow Mikey and company have a new attitude. The question is, just how long will all the cars stay in the top 35?

39. Kyle Petty Grade: F
It may be a good thing Petty is taking several weeks off this summer. It's been quite a shock, watching NASCAR races without a Petty in the field. You have to wonder how much longer Kyle is thinking of racing.

All the Open-Wheel Racers (16-Juan Pablo Montoya, 34-Sam Hornish, Jr., 40-Dario Franchitti, 63-Jacques Villeneuve) Grade: Inconclusive
NASCAR has been a wake-up call to some of these drivers. Montoya is having a good sophomore season. But the way things are going for Hornish, Jr. and Franchitti, the former Indy stars could find themselves watching the races on Memorial Day instead of running in them.

If you'll recall, one of the main reasons NASCAR gave for the design of the then-new Car of Tomorrow was that it would insure uniformity among the teams' cars. That's why they created the Claw, that giant template that fits over the body to measure tolerances and make sure each car was the same. You may also remember the claims that teams would need fewer cars, because they'd all be the same, whether intended for a superspeedway or a short track.

Never count out Cup-level crew chiefs, though. For years, they've been pushing the rules, working in the so-called grey area that rules don't quite cover. They have a lot of experience in this area, and despite NASCAR's insistence that the COT design has no grey areas, they've found 'em anyway.

The most obvious is in the way the car sits on the track. A couple of weeks ago, Jeff Gordon, who has now taken on the role Dale Earnhardt used to have as the Spokesman of the Garage, noted that teams are setting up their cars so skewed that they won't easily roll onto the scales for weighing, because the wheels are no longer parallel. He pointed the finger at the #99 of Roush Fenway as a prime offender.

This is a throwback to the Car of Yesterday, which was built on what Jeff MacGregor, who wrote the excellent book "Sunday Money," called "comic-book geometry." In an effort to build a car that handles better heading into turns, shops are turning out racecars with the rear-end housing so out-of-kilter that they can barely get into their track garage stalls; the rear end is kicked out so far to the right that, when the wheels are straight, the end almost hangs too far out to get inside the garage's door frame.

They're calling it "crabbing," and it is obvious enough for anyone to spot, even on TV. The camera that shoots straight down pit road provides an excellent view of cars driving straight ahead but with a body that looks like it is in the middle of a turn. Notable among these is Sam Hornish's #77, but others are as bad.

Gordon said the set-up was of little real help, because it makes the car harder to control, but apparently, other drivers disagree.

This has been going on all season, but last weekend Sprint Cup series director John Darby said NASCAR would be instructuing teams to "clean up" their cars. Of course, absent a specific rule, that term is nebulous enough that it may have little effect. Darby made things more confusing by admitting that "they need some of that, but there are some of them that have pushed it."

When the rules allow for a grey area, someone's going to take advantage of it. Carl Edwards seemingly enjoys his car's set-up and has used it to good advantage. (Of course, you can also get more downforce without an oil reservoir cover....) Gordon says the car is less stable this way, but when you're not doing well (okay, he's in the top 12 now, but wasn't until Darlington), it sounds like sour grapes if you criticize another team for doing something that's not illegal, just different, especially when you find out that Hendrick Motorsports also tried it.

Darby has yet to explain what specifically wrong with this set-up. "It looks goofy" isn't enough, although some fans--and Kyle Busch, who said Edwards' car "looks stupid"-- seem to think that's a good rationale. And since the rules don't prohibit it, maybe NASCAR ought to think twice. "They [complain] when we've got too many rules and then they want us to create more," Darby said, responding to the drivers' protests.

He's right. So leave it alone.

NOTE: Despite that well-reasoned comment by Darby, NASCAR now says it will, indeed be enforcing a new rule to limit yaw as of the Dover race.

There's a whole generation of NASCAR fans who have never experienced their favorite sport without the influence of H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler. The man some have likened to renowned showman P.T. Barnum has been making waves in NASCAR for almost 32 years.

Credit him with everything from lights to what was then Charlotte Motor Speedway (and thus bringing night racing to NASCAR) to the spectacle of the pre-race shows to keeping ticket prices low enough for the average working fan to be able to afford them.

And, now out of the blue, he's announced his retirement as President and General Manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway as of the end of the Coca-Cola 600 this weekend, and that he's also out as CEO and Director of Speedway Motorsports, Inc.

Now, look, you know and I know and the American people know that someone like Humpy doesn't just decide to up and retire in a week. At a minimum, we would expect a "Goodbye Humpy" party at Lowe's Motor Speedway; knowing him, it could have gone on for a whole season.

So what happened? This announcement smells like he's been forced out. He says he "didn't expect to go out this way," but won't give specifics, which sounds a lot like a condition of a negotiated agreement. That, and the fact that, when he's asked what role he'll play in the future at LMS, he simply says, "None," points at a nasty breakup. Wheeler has also said he planned a traditional transition period for his successor, but wouldn't give a reason when he was asked why that isn't happening, saying simply, "I don't know."

Bruton Smith, president of SMI, issued a two-sentence statement announcing Humpy's departure. Smith's son chalked up Bruton's lack of attendance at the press conference Wednesday to the fact that he's not feeling well.

Really?

After three decades, one of the best-known figures in NASCAR suddenly says he will retire in just days, and won't have any connection to the track he loves, and Bruton Smith is too sick to be a part of the press conference?

Smith is also a major-league promoter in the Humpy mold. He never misses a chance to speak to the media. The excuse that he didn't feel well rings pretty hollow.

I don't buy for a minute that the unhappy Humpy we saw at the Wednesday media event is ready to retire voluntarily.

It does not help that his heir apparent is Burton Smith's 34-year-old son, Marcus Smith.

Humpy is widely credited as the man who shephered a young Dale Earnhardt as he came into the sport as a rough-edged young racer with dirty jeans. He developed dozens of goofy and memorable promotional schemes, like the dead shark that he had driven around the track to represent Darrell "Jaws" Waltrip. His impact can be seen at tracks around the country nowadays.

And, if we're lucky, his influence and concern for giving the fans a good show will continue after his departure. It'll be tough to imagine NASCAR without Humpy Wheeler.

A man who has done so much for a sport, and is respected, even beloved, by so many, deserves to be treated better than to be shoved out the door like this.

Note to Denny Hamlin: When you intentionally wreck someone, don't stand there proudly and tell us you did it on purpose on national TV. See, NASCAR really gets upset when that happens, especially when you did it during a caution period.

Either Hamlin wasn't thinking, or he figures he can absorb the fine that's certainly on the way now. Of course, there will be a points penalty, but since he's not running the Nationwide series full time, he likely doesn't care about that, so he spoke his mind in a live post-race interview, saying, "If you throw a brick at me, I'm going to throw a concrete block back at you."

Hamlin, who was in second place during Saturday night's Nationwide race at Charlotte, gave Brad Kesolowski's third-place car a hard hit while they circled the track under a late-race caution, all but ensuring that the #88 Navy car would be unable to move up and challenge for the lead. He wasn't, and Kyle Busch won when the caution flag flew again with just one lap to go. Hamlin finished second, and Kesolowski ended up with a career-high third palce finish.

If the guys in the NASCAR control tower were paying closer attention, Hamlin would not have finished second. He would have been much further back, because he announced on the radio that he was going to "get" Brad Kesolowski, then he actually did it. If the officials has been paying attention, they would have penalized him right than and there. A couple of weeks ago, officials watched Michael Waltrip run over Casey Mears in a fit of anger and parked Waltrip on the spot. That should have happened this time, too.

Retaliation for offenses, perceived or real, are a long-time tradition in NASCAR. In this case. Hamlin felt he'd been wronged by Kesolowski. But there are rules to be followed when you do this. Number One is: You do not admit you did it on purpose. Number Two is: You don't do it under caution. Both are sure ways to be punished by NASCAR.

Now, there's a kind of an odd second-hand rivalry brewing betwen Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who owns the #88 that Hamlin hit. After the race, Junior said his car was "Pretty tore up," and Hamin's response was, "Deal with it." This comes after the incident at the Richmond Cup race a few week back in which Hamlin intentionally brought out a caution, which helped teammate Kyle Busch beat Junior.

Meanwhile, Kesolowski is running full-time in the Nationwide series and is chasing a championship. Hamlin is not, and his temper-tantrum certainly will have more impact on Kesolowski than it will on him.

Funny thing is, anyone who's been watching NASCAR for a couple of seasons remembers when Hamlin was "just happy to be here."

Where did that guy go?

Memorial Day has come and gone. The official start of summer will soon be here. And that means NASCAR is about to turn up the heat.

We're 12 races into the 2008 season. We've taken on tracks like Daytona, Las Vegas, Bristol, and Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. Now for the fun stuff.

In the next ten weeks, NASCAR's finest will beat and bang at the "Monster Mile", a triangle, and two very different road courses. Oh yeah, don't forget about Indianapolis and Daytona...again.

NASCAR is testing this week at Pocono, the 2 1/2 mile triangle. Right now, speeds are down almost 6 miles an hour over last year's pole. The first of two road courses will come later in June at Infineon, with a stop at Watkins Glen in early August. If the open wheelers have any shot at Victory Lane this season, these two tracks may be it. We return to Daytona on July 5th, and you can expect another close finish under the lights there. Then there's Indy. If the track temperature is not close to boiling under the Indiana sun in late July, just wait until drivers like Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick unleash their tempers at the Brickyard.

The first dozen races have opened our eyes to some surprises. Joe Gibbs, Richard Childress, and Rick Hendrick each have 3 cars in the chase right now, Jack Roush has 2 cars in, and Ray Evernham has 1. Not a bad top 12. But this may not be the final dance card come September.

You have to wonder if Hendrick Motorsports has really turned the corner. They stumbled out of the gate, with just one win so far in 2008. And how many more times will Dale Earnhardt, Jr. come close to a win before it's snatched out from under him?

Joe Gibbs Racing has a different problem. None of their four victories involves Tony Stewart. It looks like Kyle "Rowdy" Busch is the leader of this team right now.

Expect to see fireworks over the next ten weeks (and I'm not talking about after the checkered flag flies). Juan Pablo Montoya is on his third crew chief this season, "Rowdy" Busch is public enemy #1 for Jr. Nation, and we're reaching prime time for NASCAR's "Silly Season" to begin..just who will kick it off: Stewart, Greg Biffle, or will Bobby Labonte jump ship first?