Kyle Busch has been on a roll this season. Having won three races already, he has already impressed his fans and silenced his critics in the new phase of his career. Last weekend, he got his third win for Richard Childress Racing having started on the pole, and going on to dominate the race by leading 121 out of 243 laps.
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Without question, Busch seems to be full of confidence in his new team. Having spent a major chunk of his career with Joe Gibbs Racing, the spark of chemistry ignites afresh with his shift to RCR this season.
And solidifying that argument, the head honcho at RCR, Richard Childress himself recently elaborated on the pleasure of working with Busch. The legendary team owner even drew parallels between Busch and the great Dale Earnhardt, illustrating the resemblance in their work ethics and the relationship during their respective time driving for his team.
Richard Childress praises Kyle Busch’s work ethic with Dale Earnhardt’s example
Explaining the working relationship with Busch, the RCR boss, highlighted how things had been similar with Dale Earnhardt. Given the fact that both drivers have been known for a rather unique temperament on the race track.
During the press conference, Childress stated, “Kyle has been really, he’s such a pleasure to work with… Everybody says, ‘Man, how (are) y’all going to get along?’ Same question they asked me about, you and Dale won’t last six months. We lasted 20 years. I wanna keep Kyle there and hopefully, we end his career when he gets ready to.”
It is interesting to see how after all these years, history seems to be repeating itself with Childress. Although comparing Busch directly with Earnhardt might upset some, it is undeniable that there are certainly some other traits that both drivers possess.
And anyway, who would know the similarities better than Childress right?
Dale Earnhardt Sr and Richard Childress was a match made in heaven
Childress had been a part and parcel of Earnhardt since his early days of racing in NASCAR. The duo even raced against each other early into Earnhardt’s career. But later into his career, the Intimidator went on to race for Childress’ team, for the latter half of the ’81 season. However, he decided to leave the team after that season citing a lack of chemistry.
Yet as luck would have it, Earnhardt returned to the team in 1984 and the rest became history.
Throughout his career in the Cup Series, Earnhardt gathered a total of 76 wins and a major chunk of those happened while he was with Richard Childress Racing, 67 race wins and six championships to be precise. The relationship shared between the Intimidator and Childress team through the decades definitely created one of the most memorable segments of history within the sport.
So now imagine, if the pair had not worked together, what could’ve been the state of NASCAR today and of their own individual legacies? Would Earnhardt have been as legendary as he remains in the hearts and minds of the greater NASCAR community? Would Childress have been as big of a name as he is today?
It’s certainly something to think about.
