“With friends like this who needs enemies,” a friend tweeted after hearing that Kurt Busch has been offered a ride with Stewart-Haas Racing. My friend was referring to the dismissal of Tony Stewart’s long-time friend, Ryan Newman.
At the time of the dismissal Stewart said “I believe in him 100%. I truly wish we were ready to facilitate four teams.” A short few weeks later and it looks like Stewart-Haas Racing is indeed ready to add a fourth team.
To Stewart’s credit he did not duck from questions concerning Newman’s dismissal and the difficulty his friendship had in the decision. At the same time the comments did conflict with each other at times. “It’s hard when you run a business. You have to make decisions which you think are best for the company.”
How does one who believes in someone 100% then talk about a decision not being the best for that company? This makes no sense to me. Newman has been a consistent driver for Stewart-Haas Racing, but it’s hard to argue with Tony Stewart when he had an opportunity to add one of NASCAR’s stars in Kevin Harvick to his stable. But his excuse at the time seemed to center around only being able to field the three cars of Harvick, Danica Patrick and himself.
Now a few short weeks later and just about every major racing publication and news organization has reported that Kurt Busch has been asked to join Stewart-Haas Racing to add a 4th car to the organization. As my friend said, that’s some friend.
Look, there is no questioning Kurt Busch’s talent. But along with that talent comes a ton of baggage. Busch has had several run-ins with reporters and fellow racers throughout his career. Who can forget the obnoxious, inexcusable behavior Busch exhibited when Bob Pockrass was attempting an interview? And who can forget about some of the memorable in-car radio transmissions from Busch browbeating his crew. He acted like a bully on multiple occasions and a spoiled rotten jerk on many others.
In his defense, he’s been on his best behavior while driving for Furniture Row Racing. Perhaps Busch is a changed man. After all, one would think that adding a former Sprint Cup Champion would be a no brainer. Let’s take a closer look at their racing statistics.
Driver Races Top 10’s Top 5’s Wins
Busch 458 185 95 24
Newman 427 176 91 17
Pretty close when you consider Busch has had more races and hasn’t won since 2011. Certainly one could make the argument that Newman is also a bit easier to manage and he may be more sponsor-friendly than the volatile Busch. That said, Busch is a tremendous talent and a former champion but it’s a lot closer than most people may think.
There is a scene in the movie “Godfather II” where a young Vito Corleone was fired from his job at a grocery store because Fanucci’s nephew needed a job. The owner of the store could not afford to keep them both on so the young Corleone was fired. Perhaps Tony Stewart was given an offer he could not refuse.
Update on Tony Stewart: Stewart announced that he will not drive the rest of the season as he recovers from his broken leg. He should be back for the 2014 Daytona 500 in February. The 54-year-old Mark Martin will drive the #14 car for 12 of the remaining 13 races. Austin Dillon will drive the #14 car at Talladega Speedway.
Next week the Sprint Cup moves to Thunder Valley, Bristol International Speedway. This should shape up as some real beating and banging as the race to the Chase heats up.
My picks for Bristol:
1) Kyle Busch
2) Carl Edwards
3) Matt Kenseth
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