Bowles-Eye View

“No,” one of my friends replied. “You think that. But this ‘special day’ is really for everybody else.”

Welcome to the world of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The second the checkered flag flew at Michigan, more than four years to the day he last visited Victory Lane, the driver breathed a sigh of relief that the king of all gorillas (we haven’t seen one this big since his Daddy’s Daytona 500 failures) got thrown off his back. It’s been well-documented by even the most casual garage observer how much the drought ate at Earnhardt, an introvert by nature, deep inside the competitive fire always raged. Certainly, after enduring years of criticism that a name, rather than talent, keeps him part of the most powerful team in motorsports Sunday’s dominant victory produces its own form of self-redemption.

For Joey Logano, Pocono has now produced three chapters in his list of Sprint Cup memorable moments. But up until Sunday, the problem was the first two could best be described as “reality show-esque.” There was the Spring, 2010 spin-turned-scuffle with the Harvicks, getting Logano’s father banned from the garage with his best “Hatfield-McCoy” impression while the words “who wears the firesuit in the family?” became the trendy catchphrase of the summer. Then, you had last July, “Sliced Bread” speeding to the pole position on the same weekend Carl Edwards officially spurned millions from Joe Gibbs Racing and Home Depot to re-sign with Ford.

There are a lot of people who have been recipients of Kurt Busch’s potty mouth tirades over the past 12 months: Roger Penske, Steve Addington, Bob Pockrass, Dr. Jerry Punch and Jenna Fryer. Missing from that list, though, are three people in particular who could have really been the focal point of Busch’s anger from the start. They may not know this driver from a hole in the wall, but rest assured, if I were in their shoes I’d be booking a trip to Switzerland and getting busy producing a fake ID.

Chase? You’d be chasing someone out of the room if they played that type of fortuneteller card two months ago. For a driver who had to wait nearly two years for his slot in the No. 5 car, paired with Hendrick’s Yankee-like expectations, Kahne’s start to 2012 was the nightmare that kept on giving. Whether it was wrecks, mechanical failures, poor pit stops, or awful-handling race cars, the perfect storm of bad was threatening to turn him into one of the bigger free-agent busts in NASCAR history. Check out the first six finishes on paper: 29th, 34th, 19th, 37th, 14th, and 38th. That left Kahne 31st in the standings, but with the top-tier equipment being provided, that might as well have been 71st.

Three years. For most people, that seems like nothing – just ask couples in long-term, successful marriages – but in NASCAR terms, history has shown us it’s all you need to prove yourself. Three years into his Cup Series career, Jeff Gordon captured his first title. Dale Earnhardt? Three years was too much: he won one in his _second_ full-time season. They head a list of top-level nominees that include Jeff Burton, Ernie Irvan and Bobby Labonte, drivers who could point to that timespan as when their careers started skyrocketing from zero to hero.

Will Brad Keselowski be next on that list?

Four Spring races at Richmond, four straight Kyle Busch victories. To have that type of record on your resume, Lady Luck needs to be hired as at least a part-time consultant.

Or how about full-time employee? We saw her working overtime Saturday night, taking control for Busch at a Richmond racetrack that had another weird ending added to its resume. Remember last Fall, when Paul Menard’s late-race spin set up a suspicious finish where teammate Kevin Harvick blew by Jeff Gordon? Or how about the Spring of 2008, when Denny Hamlin led a record-setting 381 laps only to blow a tire, setting up the infamous Kyle Busch spin of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. which opened the door for Clint Bowyer to triumph?