Polite Dissent

An interesting week and weekend in NASCAR. It really all started about two months back…

There had been some controversy since Roush Racing signed Jamie MacMurray to drive for the team in the 2007 season — the year after next. Since McMurray was still under contract to Ganassi Racing at the time, this was seen as “poaching” another team’s driver. It’s certainly not against the rules, just against one of the many “gentleman’s agreements” that seem to make up the NASCAR rules. A few weeks later, Penske racing signed Kurt Busch — one of Roush’s drivers — for the 2007 season and most commentators seemed content that some sort of cosmic karma had been satisfied. Busch immediately wanted his Roush contract canceled so he could start racing for Penske in 2006, but Roush would have none of it.

Jamie McMurray is a good driver and seems to be a genuinely pleasant person. The same cannot be said of Kurt Busch. He has been arrogant since starting the sport and only got worse after winning the NASCAR championship last year. He’s a decent enough driver — but not a great driver — and owes most of last year’s win to NASCAR’s ridiculous “Race for the Chase” playoff system. Though he certainly realizes that fact, he has spent much of the season spouting off in a manner that would make Muhammed Ali blush.

In the past few weeks, in what is known as “Silly Season,” teams hired and fired drivers for the 2006 season (now, whether the driver left the team or the team let the driver go often depends on who you ask). Michael Waltrip and Kenny Schrader are changing teams. Bobby Labonte (my favorite driver) left Gibbs Racing and signed on with Petty Racing (my least favorite team) — so I’m caught in a conundrum. On the midst of this, McMurry and Busch were both quietly let out of their contracts so that they could race for their new teams next year. Everybody’s happy…right? Wrong.

This past Friday night, Kurt Busch was caught speeding and running a stop sign in Phoenix. There is a report that there was alcohol on his breath and that he was less-than-nice to the officer involved. Given that Crown Royal is his sponsor, and he has made public service announcements about drunk driving, this was a dangerous irony. Roush suspended Busch for the rest of the season in a tersely worded statement essentially saying that they were washing their hands of him. Bear in mind that Busch is the reigning NASCAR champion and involved in this year’s “Race for the Chase” (though well behind in the points), yet he was suspended without a second thought. Maybe a little bad blood there? His brother Kyle, another driver, rallied to his brother’s defense and I’ve never seen someone put their foot in their mouth so often in a twenty-second sound bite.

Nothing caps off a week better than a healthy serving of schadenfreude.