Well, we're waiting. We're still waiting for the Busch bashers to try and explain away Kyle Busch's win Sunday as luck, or dirty driving, or a fluke, or something. Instead all we hear are crickets chirping. Could this be the performance that finally opens everyone's eyes?  

I'll be the first to admit that I never saw this one coming. Never expected the rowdy one to lay the wood to a road course. Come on now, how many of you did? How many of you had him on your fantasy team this week? Not me.On a day when the road race ringers stayed busy hitting each other and running off the road, Rowdy got busy. Rowdy got his race on. Rowdy stepped it up.

At a track where he had one top 10 in his three previous starts, most fans expected the points leader to play it safe. Instead he goes out and leads 78 of 112 laps. At a road course, no less. 112 laps. 11 turns per lap. Left hand and right hand turns, at that. No mistakes. Where was the reckless 'wild child' that the haters love to hate?

This performance was so dominating, on a track where he wasn't expected to contend at, that it served notice to everyone that Busch is the man to beat this year. Of course anything can happen in that contrived Chase for the Championship, but it appears that the other eleven drivers will be contending for second place.

Texas Terry, The Iceman, and later, The Ironman. These were all nicknames for two time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte. Terry Labonte started racing midget cars at age seven and won a national title when he was nine. He came to the NWC series in 1978 and made his first start at Darlington. It was the first time he had ever seen the track, and the 21 year old finished fourth. Labonte started five Cup races in 1978 and had two top five finishes and three top tens.

 

                                                  
                                                  
                               

                                                 
                                                 

                                                 
                                                  
                     Texas short track Terry

Labonte ran for the rookie of the year award in 1979. That year's rookie class also included Harry Gant and eventual ROY Dale Earnhardt. He earned his first Cup victory in 1980 at Darlington in the Southern 500. Darlington is special to Labonte. The Lady in Black is the site of his first start, first win, and last win. All in the Southern 500.

Texas Terry won the Winston Cup championship in 1984 and again in 1996. He was the Iceman on his way to his first title in 1984, and then the Ironman, after breaking Richard Petty's record of consecutive starts,in route to title number two in 1996. He would run the consecutive starts streak up to 655 until inner ear problems from a wreck in the Pepsi 400 in 2000 caused him to miss the next two starts.

                                   Terry Labonte in the Billy Hagen owned Chevy in 1983

Labonte's feats behind the wheel are widespread. He has been on championship teams in the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. He was the IROC champion in 1989 and 1993. He won the Busch Clash in 1985, and The Winston in 1988 and 1999. He and brother Bobby were both inducted into the Texas Hall of Fame in 2002.

                              

                                

                                                 
                                            The Iceman, IROC Champion

Terry Labonte was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers in 1998. His total wins during his career were 22, along with 27 pole posititions in 851 starts. He also won multiple times in NASCAR's then Busch Series, and once in the Craftsman Truck Series.

                                     

                                                Labonte in the Junior Johnson Chevy

Two time champion, Terry Labonte, made his final Cup start last year at Watkins Glen. With his valuable past champion's provisional he is sure to get more offers from desperate car owners to drive for them. I for one would prefer to remember The Iceman taking the checkered flag for a victory lap around Darlington, holding it through his window, after winning his last race, the Southern 500.

                          

                                                 
                                  

Thanks in no small part to Tony Stewart, NASCAR could find itself in the middle of another controversy. After Sunday's race at Atlanta, instead of congratulating his teammate for winning, Stewart used his TV interview time to criticize Goodyear tires. He basically blamed Goodyear for anything and everything that went wrong in Atlanta from General Sherman to Mike Vick. Stewart said the tires were the worst he'd ever raced on, that Goodyear has been ran out of every other racing series, and that NASCAR needs another brand of tires. Funny how his teammate, Kyle Busch dominated the race on the same tires that the two time champ couldn't figure out.

Goodyear, no Hoosier, no Goodyear, Hoosier

As a capitalistic pig, I know competition is usually a good thing, but not with racing tires. The last  two tire wars in NASCAR were Hoosier vs Goodyear. Back in the mid 1980s and the early 1990s the two caused some star drivers to be injured. Both wars started with drivers complaining about Goodyear---sound familar---then Hoosier stepped in. So far so good. But, in order to be the fastest tire at the track, safety was sacrificed in making the tires. Both companies were guilty of putting drivers in danger just to be the fastest, which would generate more sales.

 

Debate is over. Bring on Bridgestone.

The tire companies have shown that they will do anything to be number one. Even at the expense of hurting drivers. At the very least right now, Goodyear is trying to make a safe tire. It might be difficult for some drivers to get the feel for, but Goodyear is at least trying. To bring in a competitor now would guarantee severe damage. To cars, and drivers. Think about it Tony.