Dale Earnhardt Jr. is gone, so who will be the most popular driver in NASCAR?
By Nick Tylwalk
5. Kyle Busch
No, we didn’t make a mistake here, and yes, we’re aware that Kyle Busch is the current “black hat” of the NASCAR scene. Plenty of fans boo him, and he’s not unaware of that fact. He actually plays into it on many occasions, because to borrow some pro wrestling lingo, he’s just more comfortable playing a heel than a face.
Still, plenty of fans cheer the heels in wrestling if they’re cool enough, and you can see some of that in Busch. We can also anecdotally attest to the fact that there’s a generous and playful side to the driver that not everyone gets a chance to see.
Could that be by design? You can’t rule it out. It still seems unlikely that Busch can make it all the way to the top spot simply because all those people flipping him the bird when he takes a bow with the checkered flag get to vote too, but all we’re saying is that Rowdy Nation is real and has more members than you might think.