While having lunch at Ninfa’s Mexican Cafe at The Galleria Mall in suburban Houston, I had some further thoughts about the previous post regarding the Busch-Penske DUDE radio exchange!!  I can’t help thinking that the real ELB, (Ears Laid Back) Kurt Busch, has resurfaced at Penske.  It was only a matter of time that the tantrums, tirades and tongue lashing resumed from ELB!!

The thought of having that kind of conversation between an employee anad employer is eye-opening, astonishing, appaulling, and extremely hilarious!!  Can you imagine, say for instance, one of Warren Buffett’s employees responding to him like that????  I am trying to imagine how the conversation would go!!!!

Mr. Buffett telling one of his employees,” to just hang in there and things will get better”.  The response from the employee after arguing with the boss, would go something like this.

 ”Dude you gotta be kidding me, oh ok DUDE you win”.

  I am sure that Mr. Buffett would be taken aback!!!  “Excuse me did you call me DUDE???”, obviously would be Mr. Buffett’s reply?  Warren Buffett, who has been called the ORACLE of OMAHA.  But a DUDE, now that is very interesting?????

How about The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff calling his boss, the Secretary of Defense, Hillary Clinton… DUDE, when responding to her queries!!!!!!!!!!!  That is mind boggling!  Maybe she would be a DUDETTE!!!!

Can you see Jeff Gordon arguing with Rick Hendrick over the radio and ending the conversation with 10-4 DUDE!!!!  That would be most amusing and very disrespectful to say the least!

Now for the last and ultimate comparison, and my correlation to the picture above!  Do you think that Dale Earnhardt, Sr. had that kind of radio exchanges with his boss, Richard Childress????  This reporter thinks that DUDE was just not in THE INTIMADATOR’S vocabulary!! He most likely used four letter words, but DUDE most assuredly was not one of the words that he used!!!

What is your take on this subject?

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Roger Penske has been called many names in his racing and business career.  But the iconic race car owner is more likely to be called “The Captain”.  Penske owns Indy Cars, two NASCAR teams, Grand Am race cars, and is THE CAR to beat in the Indy Car circuit.  His teams have won numerous Indianapolis 500′s and Indy Car championships with great driver the likes of  Al Unser, Sr., Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan, Emerson Fittipaldi, as well as Al Unser, Jr.!  Penske is also a very astute business man as well.  His holdings are numerous including Detroit Diesel, Penske Truck Rentals, former owner of the California Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, Nazareth Speedway just to name a few businesses.  So as you can his influence is felt throughout the businees world, and is a very respected entrepreneur.  Roger Penske’s wealth has been estimated to be near ONE BILLION DOLLARS!!!!!

Well, there is a new 21st century name that his ace driver, Kurt Busch has hung on Mr. Penske.!!  When things weren’t going so sterling for the Penske #2 Miller Lite Dodge during the later stages at Martinsville  the radios got smoking hot!! 

Kurt Busch (aka Ears Laid Back (ELB), lashed out at his team with this comment, “that was a stupid adjustment.  I hope that we are really proud of ourselves.  That was excellent.  Our day is shot!” 

“Do your best, we will be fine”, responded Penske. 

 ”It is the most frustrating thing  in the world to think that you think that we are better than we are.”, shot back Busch. 

“If you didn’t blow yourself up, we’d be a lot better.  You made a change, it didn’t work.   All we hear is a bunch of stuff on the radio.  Let’s get serious here, OK?  You understand?”, radioed Penske in a rare show of anger. 

The driver of the #2 Miller Lite Dodge came back with this most eloquent response, “10-4, DUDE,10-4!”  I am sure that that frequency went  eerily silent!!!!  ELB just called his boss, Roger Penske, The Captain, ……..DUDE!!!!!!!!!! 

Is this a sign that the Busch brothers arrogant characteristics have creeped back into ELB’s habit patterns????  Could the Penske-Busch marriage be in need of counseling?  There was this sense that maybe Roger Penske had succeeded in grooming the 2004 Cup champion to be a grown-up!!!  It appears to this reporter that, quite possibly, Kurt may be succeeding in getting his employer to look for another chauffeur for his BLUE DUECE!! 

This not the first time that  ELB  went off on a tirade.  Kurt had sharpened his tongue several times and aimed it  directlt towards Jack Roush, when ELB worked there.  That led, in the end, to his early departure from Roush Racing.  Could this be inklings of things to come from the Penske team? 

This reporter can’t wait for the next interview, either at the next Indy Car race or at Phoenix, with Roger Penske……THE DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

THAT’S RIGHT……..HE’S BAAAAAAACK!!!!!

It took 17 tries for Jeff Gordon to put this notch in his belt, but he finally won a race at Texas!!!  Now there is just one more track left that he has failed to secure a victory, Homestead-Miami.   I think that it was Will Rogers who said ,”the rumors of my demise are very premature”!!!  The same could be said about Jeff Gordon, the rumors of his demise is very premature!!  It has been 47 races since the  Hendrick Motorsports #24 Dupont Chevy visitied victory lane, that is more than one full year of racing!!!!!  Despite being very consistent and leading the points  this season, he had not taken his ride into victory lane until this Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.   Sunday Jeff got his Cowboy Hat and Six Shooters, look out Dallas/Ft. Worth there is a new Sheriff in town!!! 

This victory has put Jeff Gordon just one victory behind Cale Yarborough, voted one of  THE 50 GREATEST  DRIVERS OF NASCAR!!!!!  That is quite a fete, but Jeff Gordon’s career is far from over.  Let be known that he is securing his place in the NASCAR history books.  Having four Cup Championships to his credit, his drive for FIVE is alive and well in 2009!!! 

Speaking from the “HE’S BACK” category, the Stewart-Haas #14 OfficeDepot/Old Spice Chevy has emerged as a contender for the Chase.  As  much as this reporter hates to admit it, Tony Stewart has put his mark on the old Haas-CNC team and has taken it to a new level (read my previous article)!!  Stewart raced his Chevy very hard putting it in fourth place at the end of the day.  He ran all day long in the top 10 and mostly in the top 5 with the other ‘BIG DOGS’, very impressive!!

Now the question of the week. 

WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE #88 TEAM???? 

DOES ANYONE HAVE A CLUE?????????????