One driver can fix NASCAR's doldrums

Like the great white shark or the bald eagle, Jimmie Johnson has no natural predators. His place atop the Sprint Cup food chain is secure. Regardless of what happens Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway, the three-time defending NASCAR champion will all but certainly continue his march toward a fourth consecutive title with a cool, ruthless efficiency that would make even Michael Schumacher blanch.

And yet, apex predators can have a difficult time stirring passions within the heart. Oh, no question, there are tons of people out there who really love Johnson—more than we give him credit for, actually—who admire his coolness and his professionalism and his ability to raise his game when it matters most. There are plenty of folks who realize that the unflappable, behind-the-sunglasses Jimmie Johnson is just a persona, and that the real guy is funny and charming and humble. And yet, as television ratings languish and race track attendance figures stagnate, it's become clear that Johnson cannot pull NASCAR out of the doldrums all by himself.

Make no mistake about it, NASCAR is in the doldrums—ratings for Chase races have been down slightly over last year, and speedway attendance is off roughly 20 percent across the board. Point fingers all you want at Johnson, the Chase, or the current Sprint Cup car, but a lot of this is purely related to the recession, and not limited to stock-car racing. Every weekend a handful of NFL markets face local television blackouts, which the league mandates if home games are not sold out. Many college football stadiums that historically draw very well are seeing more empty seats than usual. Although the economy may be showing signs of improvement, there are still a lot of fans out there who don't have the disposable income they once did.

Still, there is no question that NASCAR could use a jump start, something to attract new fans and galvanize old ones, to add a bit of unpredictability and once again make the sport must-see TV. This time of year, with football in full swing and baseball in the final stages of its postseason, it's painful to see how lost NASCAR sometimes can get, even in the midst of its championship run. There's one guy out there with the potential to change all that, who can make the sport more relevant in a crowded landscape, and who can get even non-NASCAR fans talking about NASCAR again.

And it's not Dale Earnhardt Jr.

It's Kyle Busch.

Goodness, how NASCAR could use Busch at his bowing, rear-fender bumping, trophy-smashing best right now. This is nothing against Johnson, whose ability is unquestioned, and will go down as one of the four or five greatest drivers ever by the time his already-illustrious career is complete. But Johnson is also somewhat cautious, and somewhat conservative, and learned from mentor and teammate Jeff Gordon that one way to win championships is to avoid controversy at all costs. Busch, thankfully, never got that memo. He seems to thrive on controversy, to at times willfully create it, and in the process adds a refreshing, slightly unhinged, 3 a.m.-in-the-French-Quarter feel to a sport that too often takes itself way too seriously.

NASCAR is just more fun when Busch is winning races, and talking smack about Earnhardt's crew chief, and treating Gibson guitars like a sledgehammer, and playing with Sir Laurence Olivier flair that villain role some people love and many others simply cannot stand. Oh sure, he can be a pain sometime, running away from reporters after poor performances. And no question, the sport is worse off because Earnhardt has endured the kind of trying, disappointing season that's left his legion of fans almost apathetic. But the worst thing to happen in NASCAR this season was Kyle Busch failing to make the Chase. There's not a more interesting, fascinating, polarizing and unpredictable driver out there, and when someone like that is marginalized—as the Chase does to anyone who's not in it—NASCAR suffers as a result.

To steal a line about Reggie Jackson, Busch is the straw that stirs the drink. Not even Earnhardt, with his immense popularity, can quite fulfill that role. Sure, there are some out there who think Junior is living off the family name, as if 18 race wins at NASCAR's premier level can somehow happen by accident. For the most part, though, Earnhardt is universally beloved, particularly among old-guard fans who revered his father. If he were to run up front once again, Junior Nation would rise from its collective hibernation and there would almost certainly be more bodies in the seats. In that regard, NASCAR absolutely needs Earnhardt to start winning again. Everything about the sport is better when its biggest stars—Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon in particular—are doing well.

But the sport also needs an agitator, somebody to shake things up, and Busch is an agitator extraordinaire. While Earnhardt is sometimes too honest—as in his "end of my rope" comments from earlier this month—he's not by nature controversial. Everything about Busch is, from his personality to his driving style to his smirk to the way he celebrates. Half the grandstand thinks he's a arrogant punk. The other half thinks he's a hard-charging throwback, and a welcome departure from all the mass-produced spokesmodel drivers overrunning the sport today. Regardless, everybody pays attention. To that extent, Busch may have more in common with Dale Earnhardt the elder than even Dale Jr. does.

It's been a quiet autumn in NASCAR; Johnson running away in the points is one reason why, but Busch being out of the picture is another. Earlier this week brought the news that Joe Gibbs Racing would change crew chiefs on the No. 18 team, with Dave Rogers coming over from the Nationwide side to replace Steve Addington after Talladega. For all Busch and Addington have done together over the past two years, there's clearly been something missing in the cars over the last two-thirds of this season; as early as June, Busch talked about how he couldn't pass people when he needed to. Of course, it can't help that post-happy hour debriefs have sometimes been truncated because of Busch's commitment to the Nationwide tour, something that will be cut back to only companion events in 2010.

Maybe those changes will be enough to have Busch back to his old self next season. For NASCAR's sake, you certainly hope so. He obviously isn't the most popular driver on the circuit, and as long as Johnson is around, he probably won't be viewed as the best one, either. But these days, nobody in a stock car is better at evoking emotion at its extremes. Nobody is more capable of making some people smugly satisfied and others pitchfork-carrying mad all at the same time. Nobody is better suited to inject passion, unpredictability, controversy and drama into a sport that right now sorely needs it. Nothing is better for NASCAR than a winning, defiant, and polarizing Kyle Busch.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.