In a sport as ultra-competitive as NASCAR, only one place matters - first place. Teams work and toil constantly for a year and you can bet a month's paycheck that diligence has nothing to do whatsoever with placing third or second. Most teams are there for the win --- nothing else is good enough.
That said, how should a driver behave after a heartbreaking defeat? There are no rules; raw emotions is one of the reasons the sport is so exciting. Nevertheless, certain standards are expected of drivers. One of them is losing a race without losing class.
But what happens when one of the top guns loses? This is where the sport gets exciting. Kyle Busch is one of NASCAR's young mavericks. He doesn't just win races regardless of the series, he wins them frequently. The one thing he is more passionate about than racing is winning --- and that is not a bad thing.
Considering Busch's track record, the answer would have to be no. For instance, in the Nationwide Series at Bristol, Busch's crew made a pit road error. Busch could have won the race with his car and Busch made sure his crew knew this. He chewed them out over the radio, calling them ladies. Then, he parked the car in pit road after the race; his crew had to push it back to the hauler.
It would seem that in Busch's case, the answer would always be yes. A week after his dismal Bristol finish, he lost another race in Martinsville - the Camping World Truck Series. What did Busch do? He parked the car and raced off the track, thus avoiding post-race interactions. Now, most drivers - especially the ones with a lot riding on them - talk to the media even if they lost so badly they did not finish in the top three. But interviews are not compulsory. For the most part, drivers who are too upset over their loss proceed to their haulers or somewhere else more private, where they can rein in their emotions.
The day before, at Martinsville, Denny Hamlin (who happens to be Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate) ruled the Spring Cup event. Everyone expected him to win; he didn't. Fifteen laps away from the finish, Jimmie Johnson nudged him out of the way. This cost Hamlin the race and he was clearly so disappointed it would have been easy for him to throw Johnson under the bus. However, Hamlin kept calm... or at least tried to. He was not entirely successful in hiding his frustration because he took a jab at Johnson, saying he would repay the latter when he gets the chance.
In Texas, Roush Fenway Racing drivers Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards lost their race thanks to pit road errors. They could have easily finished first, but they took the loss in stride and refrained from jumping all over their crewmembers. As Biffle explains, "It's hard. Those guys get down because the fingers get pointed at them for a slow stop. ... But it's not their fault."
Still, Biffle and Edward's loss rankles. They could have easily finished first. Instead, they lost the race and handled their defeat with grace. In doing so, they show that while there are many ways to lose a race, there are better ways to handle a loss - even in NASCAR where everything happens full on and full throttle
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