In smashing guitar, Busch manages to stir pot again

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Kyle Busch would smash it again.

"I don't regret it," the NASCAR driver said of his guitar-slinging antics in Victory Lane after winning last week's Nationwide Series event in Nashville. "I thought it was fun. Doing it was fun."

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Of course, doing it also evoked a horrified reaction from many fans, who viewed Busch's smashing of the Sam Bass-painted Gibson Les Paul trophy as some act of disrespect. Friday at Michigan International Speedway, Busch said "99.99 percent" of the reaction he's heard to his impromptu Pete Townshend imitation has been positive. Even the children of J.D. Gibbs, president of Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing team, thought it was cool. The lone dissenting voice was one fan at a late model event Busch attended in Berlin, Mich., who told the driver to not break any more guitars.

Busch isn't making any promises.

"It was fun, and a lot of people enjoyed it and thought it was different. [It made] sports not so vanilla," he said with a smile. "A lot of people hated it, and I guess those are the ones with 88s tattooed on their arm. Or maybe still 8s. I've got no issues with [Dale Earnhardt] Junior -- it's his fans that are crazy. But that's all right."

There he goes, poking the monster again. But that's Busch, who clearly enjoys tweaking the noses of fans who deride him, the impact on his own popularity be damned. No question, Busch isn't always entirely comfortable in the villain role he's been cast in. But if he's going to have to play it, he might as well enjoy it.

Which he obviously did Friday. Talking about his Nashville celebration and the decidedly mixed reaction to it, he wore a broad smile across his face. Looking for contrition? Looking for repentance? Look somewhere else.

"That's sort of my way of livening it up," he said of the guitar smash, which followed a fiery victory burnout and his trademark bow. "We just went a little far there in Nashville, further I should say, in trying to make some excitement. It's not going to happen to the [Daytona 500] trophy, it's not going to happen to the Martinsville clock. I've heard some of those. Again, it was just in the spirit of rock and roll with a guitar. That's what it was about. I tried doing a good impression and like I said, it didn't turn out very well. I don't know if I'm not strong enough or that thing was that strong. I'll go with both." (Continued)