{"id":17874,"date":"2018-01-26T15:55:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T20:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/?p=17874"},"modified":"2018-01-26T16:01:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T21:01:33","slug":"kurt-busch-young-drivers-given-free-pass-to-be-superstars-chase-elliott-overrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/2018\/01\/26\/kurt-busch-young-drivers-given-free-pass-to-be-superstars-chase-elliott-overrated\/","title":{"rendered":"Kurt Busch: young drivers given &#8220;free pass&#8221; to be superstars, Chase Elliott overrated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/files\/2018\/01\/kurtbusch.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17875\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/files\/2018\/01\/kurtbusch.jpg 600w, http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/files\/2018\/01\/kurtbusch-594x396.jpg 594w, http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/files\/2018\/01\/kurtbusch-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><br \/>\nAppearing on \u201cThe Domenick Nati Show,\u201d Kurt Busch agreed with some of the controversial comments leveled by his brother against NASCAR&#8217;s current marketing strategy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI agree with certain aspects of what he\u2019s challenged, and then I disagree with other parts of it. But what I think he\u2019s trying to say is we\u2019re promoting these guys, and they don\u2019t have the race wins yet. There\u2019s zero in the win column for a guy like Chase Elliott. There\u2019s zero for Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones \u2014 all those guys. (Kyle) Larson\u2019s out there. He\u2019s young, he\u2019s winning and they need to push him. I see him as a future champion. But what I think Kyle\u2019s saying is these guys are being given a free pass \u2014 so to speak \u2014 become a superstar, and we haven\u2019t seen their success on track translate to what\u2019s being shown to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There is one young driver that Busch, the 2004 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, did praise.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You know, (Kyle) Larson\u2019s out there; he\u2019s young; he\u2019s winning. They need to push him. I see him as a future champion. I think what Kyle (Busch) is saying is these guys have been given a free pass, so to speak, to become a superstar, and we haven\u2019t seen the success on-track translate to what\u2019s being shown to the world, so to speak.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\"\n     data-ad-layout=\"in-article\"\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6139055459619465\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1074330605\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><br \/>\nAsked about which driver in the garage he thought was the most overrated, he listed Chase Elliott.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a touchy subject, and I think that\u2019s what my little brother, Kyle, is referring to. And it\u2019s cute. There\u2019s different chosen ones or guys that take over iconic rides. But right now, Bill Elliott\u2019s son \u2014 who is going to be a big-time player in our sport and has yet to win \u2014 is Chase Elliott. But he\u2019s doing a good job, it\u2019s all starting to blend in, and I\u2019d say he\u2019s just slightly overrated right now without the race wins that he should have in the win column.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Elliott moves over to the No. 9 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports this season. While he did not win a race last season, he did make the 16 car playoff Chase.<\/p>\n<p>Busch won the season opening Daytona 500 last year but struggled for much of the remainder of the year. He returns to drive the No. 41 Ford at Stewart-Haas Racing this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Appearing on \u201cThe Domenick Nati Show,\u201d Kurt Busch agreed with some of the controversial comments leveled by his brother against NASCAR&#8217;s current marketing strategy. \u201cI agree with certain aspects of what he\u2019s challenged, and then I disagree with other parts of it. But what I think he\u2019s trying to say is we\u2019re promoting these guys, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,788],"tags":[789,372,708],"coauthors":[675],"class_list":{"0":"post-17874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cup-series","8":"category-news","9":"tag-front","10":"tag-kurt-busch","11":"tag-nascar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17874"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}