Kyle Busch = Dead Freaking Wrong

Whether NASCAR fans want to admit it or not, Kyle Busch isn't a terrible waste of a human being. He's one of the first in line to help with fellow drivers' charitable efforts, and he's obviously attractive to sponsors, as he never has any shortage of them in his full-time Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series rides, or his part-time gig in the Camping World Truck Series.

He must have something going that's attractive to sponsors, besides just winning.

(Even before he was a big-time winner on either series, he had no trouble getting sponsors.)

However, attitudinal issues are keeping Busch from becoming a tremendously popular driver. Instead, it seems like he thrives off his "role as a villain". His tendency to behave like a petulant teenager came to the surface again this week, after a dramatic finish to Saturday's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.

Take a look at the videotape.



Busch did not comment after the race, and wasn't heard from publicly until Thursday, when he spoke to the media in advance of Saturday's Lifelock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

He probably should have kept not talking.

"NASCAR can take steps to look at it," Busch said. "If the second-place driver dumps the leader, then black flag his ass. He doesn't get the win. If he's up alongside the leader and dumps him, give the third-place car the victory."

Busch then was asked if he considered the bump with Stewart "a dump."

"Yes, it would be considered a dump," he said.

This is blasphemous. Busch might as well have blamed Dale Earnhardt, Jr., because he was just as responsible as Stewart was for the wreck. It's not Stewart's fault that Busch was, in the words of TNT's Wally Dallenbach, "mirror driving", meaning he was watching the goings-on behind him instead of just driving the 18.

However, I'm hardly an expert on racing, so let's enlist ESPN.com's Terry Blount to ask a few people who know more about it than I do.

"I would put more blame on the guy leading who was blocking than the guy who was behind," (Jeff) Gordon said. "It's not getting dumped if the guy got a fender inside you and you turn. You've got spotters. If someone is half an inch inside you, you expect to know it because of your spotters."

Kasey Kahne agrees.

"That's a long way from a dump in my mind," Kahne said. "They both were battling for the win. I certainly would not say he got dumped.

"Tony made a great move to get to Kyle's outside. To me it looked like [Stewart] was going to side draft off him to the line, but Kyle turned right.''

On the bright side, Busch is on to something. If a second-place driver purposely dumps the leader off the racetrack, that is indeed a move worthy of a black flag.

Unfortunately for Busch, that's not what happened Saturday.

'THE BIG ONE' TIMES THREE

I know there is a segment of the population that watches NASCAR to see the cool car crashes.

I don't like it, but I know they're out there. I guess everyone has their own tastes and such. Big wrecks can sure make things interesting, but they can also cross a line when cars are flying and such.

In this case, it's time for NASCAR to take some culpability. After all, the perception - when you've had two similar finishes to the last two Talladega races (trust me, they're similar) - is that NASCAR is going to have a dead driver and/or a dead fan on their hands pretty soon.

Let's first look at the videos. Three big wrecks in one unbelieveable afternoon. The first one came before most fans had even bothered to crack open their first beverage.



The second big wreck came late in the race, a more typical time for a huge wreck at Talladega.



Finally, there's the frightening and exhilarating finish.



Thankfully, Carl Edwards is okay. Thankfully, the injured fans should be okay.

Now, for what to do.

NASCAR has some options, some of which will help the problem, and some not so much.

For starters, they could change the restrictor plate and slow the cars down. This wouldn't change the packed-up nature of these races, only the speed at which the "Big One" happens. One thing that would probably go away is any measurable chance of a race car going flying like Edwards did Sunday. Drivers would hate it, because it would lead to more of this three- and four-wide high-stress racing, but fans would still be mildly entertained by the close races.

Another option is removing the restrictor plate. This would allow for more wide-open racing and fewer big wrecks. The problem is that the cars would be going much faster, meaning the big wrecks would be even bigger. And, yes, there would be the possiblity of flying race cars. Probably not a good idea.

NASCAR could also lower the banking at the superspeedways. It's a high-cost option that would definitely lead to improved safety.

They could also keep the status quo. The idea behind doing this was that it took a perfect storm of circumstance for Edwards to take flight. The argument against it is that Regan Smith could have easily done the same thing to Tony Stewart last fall. Instead, he went below the yellow line and improved his position, which is against the rules in the plate races.

So is the yellow line an answer? Well, part of the reason NASCAR went to that rule was safety, so I doubt they'll rule that removing the rule now is a good safety measure.

A kneejerk reaction is not the right way to go about things, but fans and drivers are going to want a ruling made by the time NASCAR hits Daytona in early July. Short-term, I'm not sure there is a good answer. Long-term, I'd like to see them explore the banking issue. Taking down those high banks does no harm to the racing, and it would be an improvement for driver and fan safety.

No matter what, it's quite a conundrum for motorsports' biggest governing body.