Dale Earnhardt Jr. must raise game to rival Kyle Busch
Bob Pockrass
Bob Pockrass began covering NASCAR in 1992, primarily covering short-track racing and events. He has worked for Street & Smith's Motorsports Group since 2003.
Everyone wants to talk about a Kyle Busch-Dale Earnhardt Jr. rivalry.
Well, if there is a rivalry between the two drivers, it’s not a very good rivalry. At least not right now.
That’s because to have a good rivalry, the two rivals need to be running at or near the same level. And at this time, Busch and Earnhardt Jr. aren’t in the same league.
Maybe in two weeks, maybe in two months, it will be different. But right now, Busch is sixth in points and has three wins. Earnhardt Jr. is 18th in points and has no wins.
While they are nearly split on a race-by-race basis – Busch has done better than Earnhardt in just seven of the 13 races this year – Busch has been the one who has been winning races and leading laps. Busch has led 789 laps (18.6 percent of all laps run) to Earnhardt Jr.’s 90 laps led (2.1 percent) this year.
Until Earnhardt Jr. starts running near the front every week, don’t try to sell me that a little smack talk from Busch can make this a big rivalry. They need another finish like Richmond a year ago to give this thing some heat.
