Kurt Busch took the high road for a change.
Ridiculed before and during the Daytona 500, the usually brash
Busch held his tongue and finished second in NASCAR's biggest race.
More importantly, he maintained his momentum from last season, when
he won three of the final five events, and showed he could contend
for this year's championship.
"We're hot,'' said Busch, third in the 2002 Winston Cup
standings. "This is a good way to pick up where we left off.''
Busch started his third Daytona 500 in 36th place because of a
mistake during one of the 125-mile qualifying races. He
misunderstood his crew's instructions and had to make a last-second
turn down pit road.
Busch smoked the tires while slowing to the 55 mph pit road
speed limit, went past Kevin Harvick on the outside and suddenly
cut in front of him. Harvick hit Busch's No. 97 Ford and spun it
around. They finished in the 25-car field's last two spots.
"It's not the first stupid thing I've seen him do,'' a
frustrated Harvick said after the race.
Busch had no response.
He had more trouble on pit road in the Daytona 500. He overshot
his pit stall once and ran over Harvick's jack during another stop.
"I don't know if his ears were in front of his face or what
happened,'' Harvick said. "We need to put a restrictor plate on
his foot because obviously his foot doesn't register with his
brain.''
Busch had no response.
That's a big change from last year, when he fought with Jimmy
Spencer and even with NASCAR. Busch bumped Spencer out of the way
to win at Bristol Motor Speedway in March -- setting off a feud that
lasted almost all season.
Busch also was fined $10,000 in May for admitting he
intentionally caused a wreck in The Winston to bring out a caution.
Then he cursed at NASCAR officials over the radio at the July race
at Daytona.
After the string of outbursts, Roush Racing sent Busch to a
management training seminar to learn to deal with people better.
"This was a 24-year-old in the pressure-cooker of NASCAR, and
we felt like it would be helpful for him to manage relationships
better,'' Roush general manager Geoff Smith said. "We love the
speed of this horse -- his energy, his commitment and his
expectations of this company. But we needed to bring the horse back
to water.''
The seminar may be paying off. Busch certainly handled himself
well at Daytona, even with a banged-up car, slow speeds in the
preliminary races, the demoralized feeling of erring on pit road
and the insults that followed.
"He knows that there's no sense getting upset and frustrated at
anybody or one another,'' Busch's crew chief Jimmy Fennig said.
"Kurt has matured. He matured so fast it's unbelievable. Right now
he's a seasoned veteran.
"With his talent, he was ready for Winston Cup racing. The
political end of it -- that's a whole different game. I've been
around here long enough to know when to say things and when not to
say things. But sometimes I goof that up, too.''
Busch is saying and doing all the right things now.
He drafted his way to the front last Sunday and was on Michael
Waltrip's bumper when the rain-shortened race ended.
And since Waltrip doesn't seem to run as well outside
restrictor-plate races, Busch could vie for the championship in
only his third full season.
For this, Busch had a response.
"It's early, and all I know is it feels good to keep going with
all we accomplished last year,'' he said. "We'll just keep doing
the best we can and see where it goes."