After a tumultuous end to the 2011 NASCAR season, which saw Kyle Busch thrown out of the Camping World Truck Series race at Texas and suspended from competing in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races that same weekend, Busch knows he has to tone things down a little bit in 2012 and not display so much emotion - that might be easier said than done, however.
"I've got fans all the time that tell me they don't want to see me change," Busch said on the recent NASCAR media tour in Charlotte. "I've tried to keep that, but ultimately, it's not going to work. If you keep getting in trouble, you're not going to be here very long." That last statement could be something he learned from his older brother Kurt, who parted ways with Penske Racing after his own troubles at the track.
One change "Rowdy" will be making this season: a limited schedule of "moonlighting." He hired Jason Leffler to pilot his own Kyle Busch Motorsports Truck Series ride for the 2012, and will race just a partial season in the Nationwide Series for KBM's start-up team, splitting seat time with brother Kurt in the Monster Energy ride.
Another change Busch hopes he can make is a better finish in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Last season, Busch and rival Kevin Harvick were the top seeds when the Chase started, but with on-track troubles at Texas with Ron Hornaday Jr. and five finishes outside the top 20 during the Chase, Busch fell all the way from first to worst in the Chase, finishing 12th. He won four times during the 2011 season (Bristol-1, Richmond-1, Kentucky and Michigan-2) and had 18 top 10s.
Busch and Harvick (who was Hornaday Jr.'s Truck Series owner) had their own altercation following the Darlington race in May; a few weeks later, Harvick's boss Richard Childress was put on probation by NASCAR after putting Busch in a headlock following the Kansas Truck Series race in June, after what Childress witnessed as an intentional bump on one of his trucks on the cool-down lap.
In the Nationwide Series in 2011, Busch won eight times and took 18 top 10s in just 20 races for Joe Gibbs Racing, while in the Truck Series he won six times in 16 races, also picking up 13 top 10s for KBM. He earned his 100th win across NASCAR's top three series in July in the Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and earned his 50th win in the Nationwide Series in August, surpassing Mark Martin for the all-time wins record in the series.
Paula is a long-time NASCAR fan who covers Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports for Examiner.com.
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