Busch drawing interest following Hendrick exit

He’s NASCAR’s hottest free agent now that Dale Earnhardt is off the market.

BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) — The car owners are lining up to talk to Kyle Busch, and the overwhelming interest likely alleviated any hurt feelings he might have had following his ouster from Hendrick Motorsports.

Busch was pushed out of Hendrick’s elite organization when the team hired Dale Earnhardt Jr. to replace him starting next season. It put Busch on the open market, and there’s a flood of interest in the talented 22-year-old.

“I’m just kind of flattered and exited by all the interest and phone calls that we’ve gotten,” Busch said Friday at Michigan International Speedway.

“I’m interested in talking to anybody who wants to talk ... whoever has an open seat, let’s go.”

Dale Earnhardt Inc., Evernham Motorsports, Ginn Racing and Robert Yates Racing have all expressed interest in Busch, making him the hottest free agent in NASCAR now that Earnhardt is off the market.

Tarnished reputation

Although Busch has four career victories, finished 10th in last year’s Chase for the championship and is again on pace to make the Chase this season, he’s had several missteps in his short career that have tarnished his reputation.

Considered an aggressive young driver, he’s tangled on the track with several veterans and had questionable off-track behavior that didn’t quite fit the Hendrick mold.

Most recently, he left the track following an accident in Texas earlier this season and wasn’t around to take the car back on the track after it had been patched up. Crew chief Alan Gustafson acknowledged Friday that Busch leaving the track at Texas hurt the team.

But car owner Ray Evernham said Busch has earned a bad rap based on a string of incidents that can be chalked up to immaturity.

“It’s not like the kid’s Mike Tyson,” Evernham said. “He’s not out grabbing women and doing drugs. He has a temper, and he says things once in a while. To me, that’s not really a bad thing. It’s hard to take a guy you want to be total fire and drive that thing on the line every minute, and then expect him not to be emotional.

“You’ve just got to try to help somebody like that control his emotions.”

Evernham thinks he’s the owner who can do it. He’s got experience working with young drivers — he led Jeff Gordon to three championships during the early part of Gordon’s career, and most recently brought Kasey Kahne along.