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(WOMR file photo)
It looks like James Finch has given Kurt Busch his third, second chance of his career, that equals four chances by my count. His first second chance was given by Roger Penske. That occurred when Penske gave Busch the opportunity to resurrect his driving career, after his verbal confrontation with a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy in Phoenix. You remember that is when Jack Roush unceremoniously fired Busch with a few races left in the year.
Not learning from his previous mistakes, and after a few years of Kurt’s verbal abuse of his Penske Racing team, culminating in the famous profanity laced verbal abuse of ESPN’s pit reporter, Dr. Jerry Punch, at Homestead last November, Roger Penske summarily fired Kurt!
Did I mention that Kurt didn’t learn from his previous sins in the sport? The race at Darlington, just a few short weeks ago, fired up KuBu’s verbally abusive machine once again. His actions, and his mouth, got Kurt into trouble again with both the drivers, their team members, and most importantly with NASCAR. For his actions at Darlington NASCAR placed Kurt on probation til June 15th.
However, after the Dover race two weeks ago, Kurt was involved in another verbally abusive media interview. This time ol Kurt threatened to” kick the s**t” out of Sporting News reporter Bob Pockrass. That little verbal confrontation gave Kurt the weekend off last week at Pocono, his probation extended til December 31st, as well as a donation of $50,000 to NASCAR’s “bad boy fund”!
On Tuesday James Finch and Kurt Busch had a little “come to Jesus meeting” regarding Kurt’s future with Phoenix Racing. It appears that the ever forgiving James Finch has allowed Kurt to keep his job with Phoenix Racing, at least for the short-term.
My question to all is:
Does anyone really think that Kurt Busch can learn to control his tongue, and manage his anger? It is a given that a Kurt is a talented race car driver. However, and most importantly, can he learn to harness his vile tongue, control his total lack of respect to most involved in NASCAR, and manage his anger? If the answer is no to any one segment of that question, then the 2004 Sprint Cup champion may be finding that his racing career will suddenly end.
It is quite apparent that Kurt is becoming an increasingly hard sell to corporate America for sponsorship these days! Let’s face it, would you want Kurt Busch and his vile tongue to be the face of your product? Right now not many sponsors are takers for Kurt Busch, therefore that could lead to his eventual fall from NASCAR grace!
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
