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Superstar Splits

Breaking up is hard to do.

The Soviet Union. The Beatles. Paul McCartney-Heather Mills.

The same in sports.

This summer's Green Bay Packers-Brett Favre melodrama was just the latest in a long line of such sagas that have played out in the media for the entertainment of the public. (And talk radio hosts.) While the Favre story was more over-the-top than most, this sort of thing goes way back. Remember the San Francisco 49ers-Joe Montana? Los Angeles Lakers-Shaq? Babe Ruth-Boston Red Sox?
(OK, probably not that one.)

Montana took his new team, the Kansas City Chiefs, to an AFC title game. Shaq led the Miami Heat to an NBA championship. Ruth, an American icon, is forever linked with the World Series-winning New York Yankees.

Such strife happens in NASCAR, too.

David Pearson cleaned house in the No. 21 for most of the 1970s until the wheels fell off (literally) on his relationship with the Wood Brothers. He only won twice after that but the Wood's stayed strong for a while with Neil Bonnett.

Darrell Waltrip didn't get a Gatorade bath when he was forced to buy his way out of his DiGard contract. However, many a Budweiser celebration with Junior Johnson followed.

Kurt Busch got out of favor at Roush Racing just one year after capturing the Cup. He's been Chasing that sort of success since.

Last year's Dale Earnhardt Jr.-Dale Earnhardt Inc. soap opera caught the attention of media and fans who wouldn't know a carb from a cam. Junior's trying to find championship form with Hendrick Motorsports while DEI is trying to find the top 12 with Martin Truex Jr.

Now, Kyle Busch - released by Rick Hendrick in favor of Junior - is well into an All-Everything Season-for-the-Ages in a Joe Gibbs' Toyota. He's the favorite to become the first to secure the Cup in his debut year after switching teams since Waltrip did it in 1981.

Busch always seemed like a loose cannon in Hendrick's well-regimented organization. If Favre was surprised the Packers didn't want him anymore, Hendrick's decision had to be at least a wake-up call for Busch.

"It doesn't matter who you are beating," Kyle said several weeks ago, "whether it's a Hendrick Motorsports car or a Roush car or another Gibbs car."

Ex-teammate Jeff Gordon isn't so sure.

"I could sense that Kyle would have some hard feelings toward Hendrick and I think that he feels like he kind of got the raw end of the deal and he might be right . . ."

Adds another ex, Jimmie Johnson:

"I have . . . always known that he is a special, special talent. I told him a couple of years ago, 'Once you figure out how to win, you aren't going to stop, but you have to stop knocking the right sides off your cars and crashing in practice and taking unnecessary risks.' He has figured that out this year and he has been on fire . . . He has matured a ton and he is doing a damn good job."

Busch hasn't bashed Hendrick, but . . . as he sips an energy drink in victory lane I'm guessing the taste of revenge is sweet.

[ Next column: September 15 ]

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(I.N. Sider is the pen name for an independent motorsports business-person who has a quarter-century of professional experience working in almost every major North American racing series. The writer is not an employee of Valvoline or Ashland Inc. The column is intended to inform, entertain, and stimulate thought on the contemporary motorsports scene. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Valvoline or Ashland Inc.)