Was the success Kyle Busch or the teams and Crew Chief(s)???

[Chris Tobin]

I think it is very cool that Kurt has won with Kyle's old Crew Chief (Steve Addington) before Kyle has won since letting him go!!! Also his previous CC (Alan Gustafson) has won with Mark Martin several times!!!

It is also funny that Kyle made such a big deal about Jr. when they made a CC change saying that it can't be blamed on the CC, then a few months later they fired Steve Addington.

I posed the question a long time ago, is it Kyle Busch or his team and CC that is so good and got him the wins. I think the answer is becoming more and more clear. Kyle is a punk, and the teams (both Hendrick and Gibbs with 2 different CCs) have lead to his wins. He is still behind Jr. on the all time wins list as well...

What's your opinion?
Is Kyle that good of a driver or is it his team and CC that got him most of his wins?

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[Ryan_P]

Ummm..

Kyle is 9 years younger than Jr., has 2 less wins in the Cup series ; Jr. has been in the Cup series since 1999(18 wins), Kyle since 2004(16 wins). As for Nationwide, Jr has 22 wins to Kyle's 31, although Kyle has run more races. Compare the stats between the two, Kyle, IMO, is a better all around driver.

Kyle - http://racing-reference.info/driver?id=buschky01
Jr. - http://racing-reference.info/driver?id=earnhda02

Kyle is impressive. He's still young(24), and has racked up 63 wins since 2001 in the Top 3 series. If that's not impressive, I don't know what is. As for Addington...Steve's one of the best on top of the box. After failing in the chase in 2008 after all those wins, and missing in completely in 2009, Gibbs I'm sure wanted to shake things up a bit.

[Chris Tobin]

Jr. has never raced trucks has he? How many of Kyle's wins are in the trucks? Also like you said Kyle has raced more Busch/Nationwide races than Jr. But in Jr's brief full time Busch series run he won two consecutive championships... I do not think Jr. is the best driver at all, but I think he is a very good driver and his record confirms it. As for Kyle, I think he is a punk that isn't afraid to hold it wide open and when the team hits the right setup he can win, but as far as a driver that can work with the crew to make the car better and not just whine about it he is far far from the top of the list!!!

I brought Jr. into the OP because Kyle made comments about his CC change then months later did the same thing.

Kyle is talented, but in my opinion, he can't handle the pressure and the bulk of his success comes from the teams/cars and CCs that are around him.

[Ryan_P]

As far as I know, even when DEI had a truck team, Jr. never raced in the Truck series. Kyle has 16 wins in the Truck series, same as Nationwide. Not saying Jr's success winning two championships is a cake walk, but who was he up against? Matt Kenseth is the only one I can think of. Let's be honest, Jr. has been far from a contender for years. His last real race win was in 2006, nearly 4 years ago; I'm not counting the rain shortened win at Michgan, that was a gimme.

As for Kyle and CC's...it's hard to tell. Hitting on the right setup in part has to do with driver feedback. To say Kyle's success was mainly in part of Steve Addington is nonsense; he's won a lot of races for Dave Rogers(JGR) and in a once mediocre truck team with Richie Wauters(Billey Ballew MS). Every great driver has had a legendary CC along for the ride, it's a TEAM dynamic that we see very few of. They are called dynasty's! Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham, Jimmy Johnson and Chad Knuas, and....??

Now, would Jimmie Johnson still be as great if he wasn't with Chad Knuas and in Hendrick equipment?

[Chris Tobin]

Probably not! As for Jr in the Busch series, yes MK but also other drivers and of course there were Cup guys racing Busch on a reg basis back then too. He is not as good as his father but Jr does have talent too!!!

[07FJRog]

What's your opinion?
Is Kyle that good of a driver or is it his team and CC that got him most of his wins?

well IMO is that he had many diff crew chiefs with all those wins, I do not beleive he had the same crew chief in trucks, Busch and Cup. personally I agree he is a punk, but he has alot of wins and top 5's.