Kyle Busch’s head keeps jumping out of gear
Three weeks ago, on the day two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon was killed in a gruesome crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegan Kyle Busch was among the first NASCAR drivers to express grief on Twitter.
"The loss of Dan Wheldon affects the whole racing community. May all our thoughts and prayers b w his family. He will b missed!"
I do not doubt those words, and abbreviations for words, were sincere.
Today, they seem more hollow than Kim Kardashian's wedding vow.
Busch and Camping World Truck Series championship contender Ron Hornaday Jr. were racing past a slower truck on Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway when Hornaday got loose and tapped Busch. A yellow flag came out. During the caution period, Busch retaliated by punting Hornaday into the wall at a high rate of speed.
Hornaday smacked the wall head-on.
His truck nearly got airborne.
NASCAR parked Busch for the remainder of the weekend. No Nationwide Series on Saturday. No Sprint Cup race today, ending Busch's run of 249 consecutive starts in NASCAR's premier division. Ending his slim chance of winning his first championship in NASCAR's premier division.
Afterward, Hornaday said Busch never would win a Sprint Cup championship with a petulant attitude like that.
Busch said Hornaday started it and that he was tired of getting wrecked.
"Boys, have at it."
Isn't that what NASCAR said at the beginning of the season when interest in the sport seemed to be waning?
Nobody was sure what that meant; nobody was sure where NASCAR would draw the line on Rock 'em, Sock 'em stock cars.
"We'll know it when we see it," NASCAR said when asked how far was too far.
On Friday night, NASCAR saw how far was too far. The Blue Bomber knocked the Red Rocker's block off in Turn 1.
Now the line has been drawn. To nobody's great surprise, a circle with a line through it has been drawn around the No. 18, who trades more paint than Rowdy Burns and Cole Trickle in "Days of Thunder."
What if Hornaday's truck had gotten airborne and climbed the catch fence? What if he had hit the wall at just the wrong angle? What if his seat belt broke?
Watch Busch wreck Hornaday, and then watch Dale Earnhardt crash at Daytona in 2001. Then tell me which looks worse.
Auto racing is dangerous enough without boys having at it.
Ask Teresa Earnhardt.
Ask Susie Wheldon.
Ask the wives and loved ones of drivers who didn't have their own merchandise trailers.
Kyle Busch has a ton of talent. Multiple tons of talent. His 104 victories in the Cup, Nationwide and Truck series speak to it. But whereas his right foot remains heavy on the gas, his head keeps jumping out of gear.
So he sits this weekend.
To use his terminology on Twitter, he will b w himself, and he won't b missed.
THREE UP
■ Those who thought hearing Ken Korach's dulcet tones for 22 seconds or so during the hit movie "Moneyball" wasn't nearly enough will be able to listen to the veteran Oakland Athletics broadcaster for a full three hours -- or more, if there's a lot of passing -- on Nov. 26 when the UNLV football team hosts San Diego State. Korach will return to his roots so Jon Sandler can call the Rebels' basketball game against top-rated North Carolina -- or South Carolina -- at the Orleans Arena Thanksgiving tournament.
■ Mission Improbable: Find a local angle to the Louisiana State vs. Alabama showdown. So just call me Mr. Phelps. Ron Cooper, in his third year as the Tigers' defensive backs coach, was UNLV's defensive coordinator under Jim Strong in 1990. He still lists it on his resume for whatever reason.
■ "The Las Vegas Sin stormed into the sold-out ShoWare Center Friday with the force of a strong cold front, shifting the temperature from fall to winter in an impressive first-half flurry which ultimately froze out the resilient Seattle Mist, 28-24." You gotta love the Lingerie Football League, and the guy who writes about it.
THREE DOWN
■ After one exhibition game against a Division II opponent, UNLV's basketball marketing campaign will be revised from "Let's Run" to "Let's Run Every Now and Then and the Other Times Let's Run Half-Court Sets Because That's What Coach Kruger Taught Us."
■ Those clamoring for the Rebels to reschedule Marathon Oil after the narrow escape against Washburn on Tuesday night will have to go right on clamoring because of a 2004 NCAA rule that prohibits college teams from scheduling noncollege teams for exhibitions. So a game with the Globetrotters also is out. Blame it on the Beltway Ballers, an AAU team Connecticut once played to curry favor with recruit Rudy Gay's summer league coaches.
■ Were it possible to hermetically seal the 1985 Chicago Bears in a mayonnaise jar on Funk & Wagnall's porch, somebody at UNLV would want to schedule them for next year's homecoming game.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.
