Kyle Busch can’t dodge drama

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kyle Busch expected to be the center of attention at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he has won four of the past five Sprint Cup races.

But it has been a busy week even by Busch's standards, beginning with him losing his driver's license Tuesday as punishment for his 128 mph speeding ticket in May. Then came an on-track incident in Wednesday's Truck Series race that again has put him at odds with Kevin Harvick.

Busch tangled on the track in the trucks race with Elliott Sadler, who drives for Harvick in the Nationwide Series. After contact between the two sent Busch into the wall, Busch intentionally wrecked Sadler a few minutes later as retaliation.

Busch later indicated the incident stemmed from his long-running problems with Harvick.

"He ran into me three times prior in the race and then spun me out down the backstretch -- he hooked me, so I wrecked him," Busch said. "The guy is paid by KHI, so what do you think?"

But Sadler wasn't running for Kevin Harvick Inc. at the time, and Harvick wasn't pleased with the implication that he had anything to do with the incident. Asked Friday if he had spoken to Busch, Harvick went into attack mode.

"I don't have any reason to talk to Kyle. I wasn't even involved in any portion of the incident," Harvick said. "You would hope that he went back and watched the race. The first thing that happened was that he shoved Sadler up the racetrack, and then he got mad because Elliott ran into the back of him, and then he drove over the front of him and wrecked himself.

"Old Kyle, I guess, showed up this week ... (and) was kinda pouting because he was getting his butt whipped, I guess."

Harvick paused briefly, then added a threat of sorts: "He keeps running his mouth, he might get it whipped again off the track."

And so it goes with Busch, the Sprint Cup Series points leader and growing favorite to dethrone Jimmie Johnson's run of five consecutive championships. He leads the series with four victories and, despite his 23rd-place qualifying effort Friday, has to be considered a threat to win today's Irwin Tools Night Race.

But the Las Vegas native again found himself in the center of the storm for all the wrong reasons. Controversy can work for some drivers -- it long has been believed that two-time series champion Tony Stewart is at his best when surrounded by drama -- but Busch isn't so sure about the adversity.

"It can bring out the best, and it can bring out the worst, certainly," he said. "It's about every day I've got something. I'm getting pretty used to it."

The question becomes, though, can Busch continue to keep up his pace while constantly facing a different drama.

Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon said he personally couldn't produce but said it doesn't seem to bother Busch or his older brother, Kurt.

"I couldn't, but the Busch brothers seem to do it very well," Gordon said. "I think it's pretty well documented and clear that they get very excited and share their emotions over the radio quite often, and they're still able to go to Victory Lane."

The 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup championship is a different animal, though, and Kyle Busch has yet to make it through unscathed. He was competitive at the start of the 2007 Chase but was wrecked at Kansas and Talladega to end his shot. He opened the next year as the points leader and championship favorite, but poor finishes in the first two events immediately took him out of contention.

He was a title contender again last year, but a wreck with David Reutimann at Kansas ended his bid.

Gordon, like many NASCAR followers, is curious if Busch can keep it together for 10 weeks.

"It's how those first couple of races go in the Chase," Gordon said. "That's the difference in the Chase. You've got 10 races, and you've got to put 10 good ones together. And if you have one bad one, you have to keep your emotions in check and not make it worse than it should be. Those moments are crucial because it does seem like everybody has maybe one bad race in the Chase. But it's how you rebound from that and how you react to that."