After watching the boo-birds "embrace" their "second son" Kurt Busch, the nearly infamous Ward Burton brush-off and thousands of miles of practice, qualifying and racing -- it's finally time to put this road trip to bed...As you well know, Denny Hamlin won the Lenox 300 at New Hampshire, and Hendrick Motorsports didn't miss a beat without crew chiefs Steve Letarte and Chad Knaus. Click on those links for the stories.
As for Kurt Busch, amazing to see the way he was embraced. Last week, of course, Busch said that he was like a second son, rivaling Ricky Craven in popularity in New England. Funny, then, that he would be so roundly booed during driver introductions and that the crowd around his merchandise trailer on the midway was, well -- let's just say the word "sparse" comes to mind.
I don't remember the fans ever booing Ricky.
The weekend on the working front was a frustrating one. Four different times Ward Burton decided he couldn't take two minutes to talk to a reporter.
But, we remind you, these are the most accessible athletes in pro sports.
Now, I'm not just some whining "I didn't get my story" reporter expecting you to feel bad for me. Twice on Saturday, I tracked Ward down -- once in the Busch garage and another time in the Cup garage. On the Busch side, he gave me the wave and walk-off -- no biggie. On the Cup side, he said he couldn't talk because he had to get to practice for the Busch car. Told me to come back.
You got it, I said. Not a problem.
So then there was Saturday. I waited for him after practice and he walked out of his hauler, saw me, stopped, grabbed a water and ducked back inside. Then after Happy Hour for the Cuppers, a full 2 1/2 hours before Busch race later that day -- and after he waited in the garage stall behind his car for several minutes, he finally walked over in my direction.
"Ward," I asked him. "Have you got a couple of minutes to talk about your wildlife foundation?"
"No, I don't," he said. "I've got to do this hospitality thing, and then I've got the Busch race. Come back tomorrow."
"Is there somewhere I can walk with you to? I only need about 30 seconds, I just want to quickly ask you about the education work you're doing for kids."
"I can't do it in 30 seconds. I'd love to do it, but I'm booked solid today."
With that, he was gone. In the time it took him to haggle with me about whether or not he had the time to talk anyway, we could have been done with.
Ward Burton finished 43rd, dead last in the Lenox 300, after transmission failure just 3 laps in. Karma?
17 comments:
My gosh , that was sort of an ignorant thing to write and publish on the Internet . Where have you been this year , have you spoken to any of the guys that are outside the top 35 and have to worry and struggle each week to make a race ? Jeepers from what we see each week before qualifying is on television , they all look like they are on edge , about ready to have a nervous breakdown as they loose whatever they ate before coming to the track ...get a grip , there were 97 other stories you could have written about as you put NHIS behind you Geez you must have been bored .
I have to agree with the first fan comment about your view of the Loudon events.
Seems you could have found something more interesting to write about with and entire weekend of news and events.
Such a shame that you completely missed all the publicity about Victory Junction Gang Camp and the fact that it is the King's birthday coming up this week.
I guess if this is the best you can dig up during an entire weekend of racing I don't need to read your blog again.
My first thoughts were when I read this was that Ward must have been very, very busy this past weekend not to have been able to take time to talk about his life's passion... wildlife.
Don't take his inability to talk with you so personal. Have you considered he just didn't have time? Maybe you should have given him the benefit of the doubt before spreading it all over the internet.
Stuck your hand in the hornet's nest of ignorance there buddy, I love it!
The most accessible athletes in sports, yeah right! And Chad Knaus doesn’t cheat he's just resourceful, Michael Waltrip is a gem of a human being and Denny Hamlin's ego is fully in check. Let the NASCAR myths live on!
First I'd like to say..WHAT A WASTE Of a media hotpass ! This is all you could come up with?
So what.. Kurt get's booed..Doesn't mean he doesn't have some of the best fans out there ! Have you ever met Kurt ? Gone to a Miller Lite party and watched him with the fans ? Do that first then write your Kurt story.. I've read enough of the " let's bash Kurt because it's cool garbage"
What you've written about Ward raises alot of questions for me..
Are you so important in the scheme of things that you caused Ward's engine to blow up ? If so then I had better tread lightly here I'd hate to lose my lucky ways..
Seriously have you been to WardBurton.com and read up on the foundation ? If you have then you would have agreed with Ward that talking about it for a couple minutes would have been impossible.
All drivers are busy..Even the ones not in the top 35. In fact I think they're busier and more stressed than any out there !
Have you been following Ward on qualifying day ? Have you seen what an uphill battle it's been for all the drivers not in the top 35 ? Do you know what the " top 35 rule" is ? Ward's fans are happy to see him back..and hope he can win this battle !
Don't judge another's person schedule and responsibilities without having to have handled them! Poor Ward, worried about qualifying - worried about if he did quality would he have a car that would run on Sunday. Then he has to put on a happy face and go to a meet and greet with some sponsors so he doesn't have time to talk to you. boo hoo for you!!! Give the guy some credit for being polite and trying to remain sane under the pressures he has. If you want to write an article on Ward, how about one pushing for him to get a good ride!!!
I would say the Wildlife Foundation is the only thing to interview him about. He has no where near the talent his brother has. Not to mention he doesn't know how to talk. Sure seems to be a bunch of Waaaaard fans out there. Why would he get a better ride? Does he deserve one? You need to do the best with what you've got if you want better. And he's had better, but he's not that good. Hence, why he doesn't have the good ride now...
Do you people understand that?
Do you understand that your thread deserves no response ?
30 seconds isn't enough time to talk about the WBWF. By the way, he was so short on time he didn't ge to the driver's meeting on time Saturday. I think you may have contributed more to that then a blown engine.
Seems like this guy gave Ward Burton the benefit of the doubt, continuing to "come back tomorrow" only to get the same response. Hard to bash Travis on this when he did everything Ward asked him to do.
What?
We already established that it would take more than a couple of minutes to chat about the wildlife foundation. I am suprised that
Travis never thought of using the phone to schedule an interview ?
If he had done his research and had gone to WardBurton.com ...This is just plain silly !
Trudy, when you aks someone to "come back tomorrow," that's basically saying that will you make time to talk then. So to do that for a full weekend, seems like Travis did his part. Burton didn't follow through on his.
Besides, you don't schedule interviews when you cover live events. You grab who you can when you can.
When you tell someone " come back tomorrow " that doesn't mean that you've made a commitment..Now if it had been a scheduled interview then Travis would have something to complain about but even then things happen..You're splittin hairs now..
Schedule an interview after he tells him to "come back tomorrow" is so brilliant. I'm sure Ward Burton would have busted out his day planner on the spot.
Sorry, but if you're busy when someone calls, and you tell them to call back in 10 minutes, do you mean to tell me you're not making a commitment to talk to them? That you're only telling them you might pick up the phone in 10 minutes to feed that line again? Because that's your logic.
What I don't get is why everyone cares so much that Travis ragged on Ward? I didn't realize that many people liked him. I personally could care less, but it is amazing to see so many Ward fans in Maine.
There is a large army of Ward fans out here and we will stand behind whether he is first in points or last. He is a great person and driver who makes time for other people whenever he can. Just because it appeared that he had time does not mean that he did have free time.
Ward fans are everywhere!!!! :)
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