It was one of the shortest post-race news conferences this year, but, boy, did it stir up the NASCAR locker room. From Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Brad Keselowski, the social banter has lasted much longer than the Kyle Busch media center session at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
With the Coca-Cola 600 ending around 12:30 a.m. ET and writers on deadline, it wouldn't have been rare for the media center session to be short, especially after drivers answered a handful of questions on pit road.
Busch, as required since he was the second-place finisher, came to the media room, and they went right to questions. With Austin Dillon's historic win in the No. 3 Chevrolet, ESPN.com asked Busch if he was surprised that Dillon could make it to the finish line on fuel and what he thought about Dillon's first win.
Busch responded: "I'm not surprised about anything. Congratulations." He then dropped the microphone. No one else asked any questions.
That's when the commenting heated up on social media.
Earnhardt watched a tape of it while doing his post-race Periscope session and said: "Damn. Holy moly. My gosh. He needs a Snickers. You're not yourself. My God. That's Kyle, man. He's awesome. That's why we like him."
He added on Twitter:
Don't change @KyleBusch
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) May 29, 2017
The sport needs personalities. All types.
In another tweet, Earnhardt said, "We all can't be politically correct robots. If you don't like him that's perfectly fine, but that s--- was funny. I was entertained."
With another network showing the video, saying that this shows what it's like to hate losing, Busch's biggest rival delivered a response:
Not sure how or when "hating losing" got defined in this manner, but I'm pretty sure it's the wrong way... https://t.co/HqEPTGTBDs
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) May 29, 2017
Idk 😐
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) May 29, 2017
Maybe I should keep my mouth shut. But I was taught to hate losing by working harder next time, not by being disrespectful to others.
Andy Graves, who heads the NASCAR technical program for Toyota, fired back at Keselowski. And then the driver of the No. 2 Ford said he disagreed with Graves.
@AndyJGraves Respectfully agree to disagree.
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) May 30, 2017
All the best to you and yours.
In the end, perhaps Busch was just trying to answer the question in three seconds? If he was, he fell one second short there, too.
It has been that kind of season for Busch, who has not won a Cup race since the Brickyard 400 last July.
