Las Vegas Review-Journal - Heavy Pedal

Rookie Chase Austin didn’t know what to expect after he crashed into Kyle Busch on Friday night in the Nationwide race at Bristol, Tenn.

Austin must have been bracing for a bigger – though verbal – impact from Busch, who was leading the race and heading toward padding his points lead in the series.

But what Austin, 19, received from Busch was a veteran’s empathy.

Busch took a few minutes to regroup before being interviewed on TV.

"He's young, trying to learn. Inexperienced. It's not worth it to blast a young guy coming in trying to learn," Busch said. "I don't tend to cut the experienced guys much slack, you know, because we all should know better.

“But Chase, he thought he was doing the right thing. He's coming from late models, where ... if you have a problem, you get down out of the way, put your hand out the window. Everybody knows that.”

Wow. A couple months ago we’d never know what Kyle was thinking because he would have stormed away from reporters and hit the road.

Great move, Kyle. I believe most of those who don’t like you look for reasons to be supportive.

Karma rewarded Kyle with a win Saturday night in the Cup race that was his first Cup win in the past 14 races and pulled him to within 34 points of the 12th and final spot in the Chase with two races left. He also won the truck race at Bristol a week ago.

It’s on to Atlanta after the Cupsters take this weekend off.

Not Kyle, of course, he’ll be racing in the Nationwide road course race in Montreal this weekend where he hopes to keep winning.

And the rest of us hope the “new” Kyle keeps his karma going.
 

Evernham in altered-state

Wedding bells are to ring today (Wednesday Aug. 26) in a NASCAR-themed wedding at the South Point.

So what’s newsworthy about a wedding in Las Vegas?

Not much, but the NASCAR theme is a unique one.

A member of my Big Ear Posse tells me that former crew chief Ray Evernham is supposed to marry his off-again, on-again girlfriend Erin Crocker today.

Evernham, a member of the ESPN NASCAR broadcasting team, and Crocker have been an item since shortly after he began guiding her short-lived stock-car racing career a few years ago.

Crocker, who can drive circles around Danica Patrick, was a standout in winged sprint cars and could have made it in Sprint Cup had she had proper financial backing.

Maybe that will come now that she’s Erin Crocker Evernham.

One person certain not to attend today’s festivities will be Jeremy Mayfield, who has plenty of free time while on suspension by NASCAR for a failed drug test(s).

A few years ago, Mayfield drove for Evernham in the Cup series. But that relationship went south after Mayfield suggested Evernham was spending too much time attending Crocker’s races in the NASCAR truck series.

While that comment didn’t affect the Evernham-Crocker romance, it led to Evernham divorcing Mayfield.