A Gigantic Waste of Time

The 48 and the 22 are at it again, and I’m underwhelmed, to say the least.

Jimme Johnson, the “five-time chump,” according to Busch, got the worst of Saturday night’s pitter-pat, finishing 31st, some 38 laps down. Busch went on to finish in the top 10. Both made the Chase, by the way.

On lap 185, Busch got into Johnson heading into Turn 1.

"We had 398 other laps with the way we raced each other [clean]," Busch said. "I got into [Turn 1] hot, locked up my brakes and slid into him. And then you could just see the payback coming from the five-time chump.

"So this is where we stand. Cars have been racing; cars have been wrecked. We have a Chase to start, so let's forgive."

Johnson is not a guy that will hold a grudge for too long, but he did have a message to send, and it came on lap 246, same place on the track. Johnson’s car took another shot at the concrete wall (it lost), and he headed back to the garage for more repairs.

"Going into Turn 1 [earlier], he spun me out. I just repaid the favor," Johnson said.

The latest chapter was no more exciting than the others, like at Pocono in August, New Hampshire a while ago, so on and so forth.

Hit with Busch’s five-time chump line, Johnson shook his head. "He can keep talking. He can keep running that mouth. He can't help but run his mouth."

Busch was in full-blown meltdown mode later, claiming he was misquoted and tearing up a quote sheet in the media center, post-race.

Yawn.

Busch is a hot-head from way back, and while there’s a certain appeal to that in the days of pure-vanilla, PR-conscious drivers, it does get old pretty quick. Somewhat like Tony Stewart, Busch can be a regular guy one minute and full-goose bozo the next.

My point is, if you’re going to have a feud, make it Hatfield-McCoy, not Dumb & Dumber. If that was the case, Kevin Harvick would be spun out of about every race he runs. Joey Logano still has a couple in the bank with Harv, and so do some other people.

That’s why Harvick will never win a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

If the 48 and 22 get to wrecking cars week by week, it will screw up JJ’s chances at becoming a six-time chump…er, champ. It will mess up Busch’s hopes of becoming a multiple champion.

Johnson took a stab at an answer to that. "It's not a concern," Johnson said. "If he would stop running into my race car, it would be really easy. I mean, very easy.”

Busch declined to comment, one-on-one, but later had this to say in the group talk.

"For 398 laps we had a solid car, and on one of those [other] laps I got into Turn 1 too hot and got into the 48," he said. "The other lap was when the 48 retaliated and spun us around. If you guys can really figure it out, you can figure out what to write.

"But to me, when guys are out there racing, we're racing. That's what we're supposed to be writing about."

 We can only hope there’s a storyline like this follow for the next 10 weeks…