Kurt Busch should learn from reformed hotheads

Kurt Busch had another run-in with a reporter and Danica Patrick said she no longer would shower with women during commercial timeouts at the Super Bowl. So it already was a pretty big weekend for NASCAR.

And then Dale Earnhardt Jr. went out and won his first race since guys started hanging fuzzy dice from the mirrors of their hot rods.

Earnhardt ending his 143-race losing streak was the biggest story of the three, though racing rival Tony Stewart might have been the wrong guy to ask.

"It's not a national holiday, guys," Stewart told reporters Sunday after the race at Michigan International Speedway. "This morning they were celebrating his fourth anniversary of his last win, so I guess we are all in a state of mourning now because he broke that streak."

Busch, on the other hand, did not break his streak of treating those same reporters with contempt and ridicule.

He was racing for the first time since serving a one-week suspension for threatening to kick the rear spoiler of a reporter who had the audacity to ask whether being put on NASCAR double-secret probation curtailed Busch's aggressiveness behind the wheel. Apparently not, as the Las Vegan finished third in Saturday's Nationwide Series race.

Say this about Busch the elder: Even with Dean Wormer looking over his shoulder, he gives the gas pedal a proper thrashing.

Busch was under team orders not to speak with the media. But when he finished third, he was obligated by NASCAR to do so.

So as Busch waited impatiently for race winner Joey Logano to finish talking about his setup or whatever, he was told the radio people had said he'd blown off an interview request during the live broadcast. Busch grew more impatient, and left the room.

Marty Smith of ESPN, heretofore a Busch supporter, chased after him. Busch motioned Smith and his cameraman over. Then he told them to beat it.

"You ever hear of sarcasm?" Busch reportedly said.

Smith tried to curry favor by saying he had just done a positive piece on Busch for ESPN.com. Busch, according to Smith, said he didn't need the help.

If one were to rank Busch's meltdowns in terms of baseball rhubarbs, this wasn't exactly Earl Weaver turning his cap around and kicking dirt on Ron Luciano. This was more like Joe Maddon questioning a balk. It probably won't get Busch put on NASCAR triple-secret probation.

But if one were to run a question about Busch up the flagpole of all those campers in the infield, the first one might be "Should he seek professional help?"

Not professional help from psychologists and anger management specialists and the like, because he already has tried that, and it didn't take. Help from professionals in the other sports.

Instead of trying to put his belligerent past in the rearview mirror, perhaps Busch should embrace it, make it work for him - you know, like the perfectly matched set of tires Cole Trickle received from crew chief Harry Hogge in "Days of Thunder."

Instead of mean, sullen George Foreman, Busch could become affable, lovable George Foreman. He could become a lean, mean driving machine, have some kids, name all of them Kurt. Maybe even get his own sitcom on ABC, or on the Speed Channel.

Instead of fighting with the media, he could join it. Like John McEnroe or Bob Knight.

He could become an analyst at a truck race or something. Then he could make an ice tea commercial and say you've got to be kidding, or an insurance spot where the guy at the front desk hides under it, and the guy hiding under it could be Dr. Jerry Punch, the ESPN reporter whose gears Busch verbally stripped last year. Or Jimmy Spencer, who once punched him in the nose at Michigan.

If polarizing figures such as Foreman and McEnroe and Knight can get back in the public's good graces, then why can't Kurt Busch?

But if he's thinking about borrowing from Danica's playbook and taking a shower with Jimmy Spencer during a TV timeout at the Super Bowl, I'd just as soon the public stay upset with him.  

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.