Kyle Busch: Mr. Popularity

By PATRICK OBLEY - pobley@thestate.com

DARLINGTON — Boo Kyle Busch. Boo his mother. Call him names, Make it colorful.

He feeds on the hate. He dines on your bile.

“I don’t care,” said the 23-year-old Saturday night after becoming the youngest driver ever to win a race at Darlington Raceway.

“I’m here to race. I’m here to win,” he said. “If I win, it just makes ‘em more upset and cry on their way home.”

Throw stuff at him as he does his victory burnout. He knows no one is happy to see him leave fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his rear-view mirror on the way to winning the Dodge Challenger 500.

Just do him a favor:

“Someone threw a beer can at me,” he said. “Just make sure its full next time so I can enjoy it.”

After leading just one lap in three previous trips to Darlington, Busch led more than anyone else Saturday night (169) during the fastest race in the venerable track’s history. At 23 years, eight days, he beat 1981 winner Terry Labonte to Victory Lane by nine months.

Never one to keep an opinion to himself, Busch let his crew know early and often what he thought of his car.

“These brakes are the most pathetic thing I’ve seen in my whole life,” he yelled into his radio.

An odd complaint, considering he hardly ever uses them.

There were many other things to complain about as the night went on. The lugnuts wouldn’t stay on the tires. The tires wouldn’t stay on the track. He couldn’t keep the car out of the wall.

But, as has often been the case during this wildly successful 2008 campaign, the Sprint Cup points leader voiced his concerns while driving in clean air.

“Nah, that don’t bother me,” said Steve Addington, Busch’s crew chief. “He’s just explaining we need to work on this race car.”

No one was expected to take center stage away from the track itself. Its new surface had rocketed every car in the field save one — Reed Sorenson’s No. 41 — past Ward Burton’s former track-record 173.797 mph during qualifying.

Friday night’s Diamond Hill Plywood 200 began with two wrecks within the first 10 laps and hardly improved from there.

Saturday, the carnage began early with two wrecks in the first 11 laps. Elliott Sadler started things off by plowing into Tony Stewart’s car on the second lap.

The drivers learned quickly to respect the track. At one point, more than 100 laps passed without a caution.

In the end, a Joe Gibbs Toyota won the race, but the Roush Fenway quintet dominated the field.

Four of the five Roush Fenway Fords finished in the top 11, led by runner-up Carl Edwards. David Ragan was fifth, Matt Kenseth sixth and Jamie McMurray 11th.

The fifth belonged to pole-sitter Greg Biffle, who led much of race’s first quarter before engine woes ended his bid for a third Darlington title.

Jeff Gordon led briefly before finishing third. Earnhardt Jr. was fourth.

But in the end, all the talk centered on Busch, NASCAR’s newest black hat.

“I think it’s cool when Kyle gets the smoke going,” Edwards said, assessing Busch’s burnout. “He gets the smoke going, then all the sudden he jumps out of the car like David Copperfield or something. That’s pretty neat.”

“Houdini, man,” Gordon said.

“Houdini,” said Edwards. “Houdini.”

Reach Obley at (803) 771-8473.