A young driver...

The smell of ashes from the burnt bridges in his early days still linger...

Seemingly with all the talent in the world and a whole career ahead of them...

Racing fans divided on him; either you love the guy or you hate him, there is (apparently) no middle ground...

No matter where you stand, you cannot question his commitment to driving the car the minute he pulls the visor down to start a race...

You think I'm talking about Kyle Busch, don't you?

Well, you'd be wrong...try Michael Schumacher instead.

Michael made his debut at Spafrancorchamps for the old Jordan team and qualified seventh...a feat made even more incredible considering he'd never driven the track before despite living quite close by. His clutch blew on the first lap and he had to retire but the wheels were in motion regarding his future as Benetton left no stone unturned and managed to wriggle Michael away from Jordan for the next race.

Did Eddie Jordan feel bitter about it? Well, considering that the only car from Michael's F1 career that he doesn't own just happens to be a 1991 Jordan, you would have to think he does. As for the fans being divided on 'Schumi', that's a rather easy one to explain as his track etiquette was rather questionable at times; Adelaide 1994, Jerez 1997 and Monaco 2006 for example.

It does sound rather familiar to Kyle though, doesn't it?

The split with Roush as he joined Hendrick. The fact that Jack said "hell no!" when asked if Kyle could possibly rejoin the Roush-Fenway stable last year. On the track he appears too impatient and takes risks that would make even the most hardnosed racer think twice before attempting something similar while off it he portrays an air of arrogance with some of his actions and comments (winning at Bristol, leaving the track which led to Dale Earnhardt Jr getting his first taste of a HMS Cup car). Yet, despite all that, he still made the Chase amid the flurry of anticipation (and expectation) about Dale Jr taking his ride for 2008 and ended up fifth in the standings, his highest in his three full seasons.

'Shrub' is currently riding the crest of a wave in all three series, something he mentioned before this weeks race in Atlanta to which he quipped that he wasn't a bad surfer but we'll have to wait and see how long he can ride this one out.

So why the comparison to Schumacher? Well, Michael too was regarded as a 'bright young thing' in the early 90's and look where he sits in the F1 rankings after retiring at the end of 2006; 7 times Champion, most career wins, most career points and most career poles.

And while Kyle certainly won't be able to boast those stats in the NASCAR history books when he calls it a day, I reckon we should just enjoy watching this guy race the way we'd love all the drivers to...hard and flat out the whole day.

Just a few over the last 15 years...I narrowed it down to these since there are lots of cases. Oh, and remember, this is just my take on them so don't bother crying about my opinions as you won't be getting any sympathy from me.

Michael Schumacher is involved in four of them; his accidents with Damon Hill (1994) and Jacques Villeneuve (1997) while Rubens Barrichello and himself got into some hot water in Austria (2002) and lastly the tyre issue in 2003.

1994 saw him clip the wall before Damon tried to muscle his way past at the next turn. Both drivers retired from the impact and Michael won his first F1 Driver's title. The shot of Michael's Benetton Ford up on two wheels with him still trying to steer remains as one of the coolest photos in Formula 1. No penalty was forthcoming from the FIA who figured this was just a racing incident.

1997 saw a similar situation but a different outcome. Again, Michael was leading the race only for his final set of tyres to not perform as he would have liked and Jacques quickly closed in and dived down the inside to pass him. Michael turned in, they collided and Michael was left stranded in the gravel while Jacques carried on to finish third, enough for him to clinch the Championship. The FIA did penalise Michael for this; he was stripped of his second place in the standings but allowed to keep his statistics (number of wins, pole positions, etc) in the history books.

The Austrian GP of 2002 hailed the start of the 'team orders' rule after Rubens thoroughly dominated the race only to pull over on the start/finish straight (literally yards before taking the chequred flag) to gift Michael the win. Ferrari said it was for the title so Michael could gain the extra points, but the FIA (and fans alike) viewed it differently. Ferrari had such a car advantage over the others that there was no need for the team to tell Rubens to move over. The only penalty (that I can recall) was the introduction of that new rule.

The Formula 1 season of 2003 had the potential to be a classic going into the final handful of races; Michael Schumacher, Juan Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen were all but level when the circus hit Monza in September. That's when things started to fall apart for Kimi and Juan. Michelin (tyre supplier for McLaren and Williams) got told that their tyres did not conform to the regulations. The problem was that while the tyres passed the pre-race inspection, Ferrari claimed that they became illegal during the race as they exceeded the maximum allowable tread width. Michelin had been using the tyre since the San Marino race (first half of the year) without any problems but changed their tyres rather than protest it. The end result was that Michael again won the title...and many fans were left disgruntled about what might have happened had the tread issue not surfaced.

And let us not forget the 2005 Indy GP...I won't even bother talking about that since you only need one word to sum it up; farce.

The 2006 Daytona 500 was an interesting race. Jimmie Johnson lost his Crew Chief, Chad Knaus, for car infringements (and Chad was suspended for a few races). This didn't stop Jimmie as he powered his Lowes Chevy to the front to start the year off as he finished it; number 1. It was a wonderful year for the #48; Daytona 500 winner, All-Star Race winner and the Championship, it doesn't come much better than that. During the races Chad wasn't there, Jimmie was on fire, scoring a couple wins and consolidating his Championship lead.

Same track, but different year. 2007 saw Toyota enter the Cup (and Busch) series for the first time. Michael Waltrip switched from Dodge to Toyota and we had the infamous 'fuel sample' debacle. To this day we don't know exaclty what was in it, but Mikey was pinged as it was alleged that the substance might have been rocket fuel. Up until a few weeks ago, he was still in the negative in the points standings.

So now we come to the two incidents involving the new car. Both DEI and HMS played around where they should not, and both received the same penalty; 100 points off (Owners and Drivers), $100k fine and Crew Chief suspended from action for 6 races. NASCAR have told everyone (repeatedly) not to mess around with the car as they will punish you. There will always be people who argue that the penalties weren't fair on either team as the circumstances were different...but you can't say that NASCAR is showing favouritism in this regard since both teams got exactly the same thing.

But the question is this; should the penalties for tinkering with the new car have been more? Should both teams have deserved having the book chucked at them, being booted out for the rest of the year, thrown in jail...or whatever else people can dream up. Was it cheating? DEI have said it was an accident that the wrong brackets were used while HMS have said they did it to gain a little bit extra downforce. Personally, I think both teams got off lightly...NASCAR have now set down the precedence and, rest assured, this won't be the last time anyone only gets that penalty.

NASCAR had a great chance to really hit the teams where it hurts (the Chase), but when their moment came, they dropped the ball...why?

Because NASCAR wants the best teams and the best drivers in the Chase...that's why. I believe that they were stung badly after 2005 (financial-wise anyway) when Jeff Gordon and Dale Jr didn't make the Chase that they didn't want to run the risk of that happening again.

By rights, those thoughts should never have come into it...but sadly, I think they did.