NASCAR QNA: Cheer up, Kyle Busch; Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon knew this feeling
Kyle Busch has a broken give-a-damn, can he recover?
History says yes, but it might have to wait for a new season and maybe a new crew chief.
Looking back just a ways, you find both Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt going through something similar to Kyle’s current woes, which include Sunday’s mess at Pocono, where he basically shrugged his shoulders at it all afterward — “doesn’t matter what I think,” he said.
An oil leak on the pre-race starting grid was yet another head-scratcher, but not the last — getting dumped by Corey LaJoie officially ended Kyle’s day.
But again, racers with even better records than Kyle have gone through similar struggles.
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Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon had “Kyle Busch seasons”?
Not for a lack of trying, but neither quite reached the depths of Kyle’s current dilemma — five DNFs in the past seven starts, a best finish of ninth.
Earnhardt won four championships and 37 races between 1986-91, but in ’92 he was a career-worst 12th in the standings. A run of broken engines in the summertime sealed his fate.
In 2005, four-time champ Gordon had to rally late in the year, from a low of 17th (with five weeks left) to 11th, the worst points finish since his rookie year.
Not to get ahead of things, but two longtime crew chiefs left Earnhardt (Kirk Shelmerdine) and Gordon (Robbie Loomis) after their seasons to forget.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Kyle Busch, meet Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon; share NASCAR misery