Dead man walking, dumb man driving.  The former was a movie.  The latter was Kyle Busch tonight at Richmond, although he's probably as close to now being the former as is possible.

The race for the first three hundred and eighty laps was duller than dry dirt.  Between Denny Hamlin leading every lap except one and the constant drone of "did you know he's from Virginia -- did you know we're in Virginia" from the television broadcast, the only thing worth caring about was when this would be over so we could get on with our lives.  It was a disappointing, dreary exercise in tedium.  My most fervent hope was Digger would come up to the broadcast booth and take over so we would no longer be subjected to any more Hamlin stories, occasionally interrupted by bursts of man-love for Kyle Busch who was consistently running near the front although never a genuine threat to Hamlin.  Compared to this, being dateless and desperate on a Saturday night would be nirvana.  Better than the numbing pain we were being subjected to at what normally is NASCAR's best track but on this night was boredom on asphalt.

And then it all changed.

Hamlin had a tire start going down at the same time Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch were fighting it out for second.  Too busy sulking to apparently figure out maybe he should get this fixed, Hamlin stayed out until his tire gave out at the same time NASCAR's patience gave out, assessing him a two lap penalty for sulking on the track... er, stopping on the track to bring out the caution.  Meanwhile, Dale Jr. had wrestled the lead from Busch, running high wide and handsome on the way to what looked like a win that would finally get the slump monkey off his back.  Hamlin's pout bunched the field back up, and with less than ten laps to go it was on.

Dale Jr. had the better of it at the restart, but Busch kept at it and before long was door to door with #88.  Shortly thereafter it was front fender to door, with Busch's patented inability to drive and think at the same time leading to his spinning out Dale Jr.  Much to the amazement of all, especially the announcers at FOX who immediately went into a sticking up for Shrub routine including the jaw-dropping attempt to create an allegory between what had just happened and the time Dale Earnhardt spun out Terry Labonte to win at Bristol in an effort to reassure themselves that everyone would in time love their boy, this didn't sit too well with the patrons.  Who were no longer sitting, as it was far easier to throw whatever was at hand at Busch from a standing position.  As to the time Kyle Busch will become a fan favorite, to paraphrase a line I heard once on Law & Order it's currently scheduled to take place about three weeks after the Apocalypse.

Fortunately for the safety of all, Clint Bowyer used the lessons learned from teammate Jeff Burton about patiently working into position so when the opportunity to win occurs you're there to seize it to his full advantage, zipping by Busch and staying there during the green-white-I'd like to thank my sponsors run to checkers.  As one of the commentators on the race thread pointed out, Mark Martin spent the last two laps demonstrating to Busch proper technique for racing underneath someone as he missed taking second by a whisker.  It's doubtful in the extreme Busch noticed, but when you've got everyone telling you you're the on-track heir of Dale Earnhardt why bother with such things, right?

After the race, while Busch tried to blow the whole thing off as just one of those racing deals, Dale Jr. gave every appearance of a man so choked with rage he could barely get the words out.  Yet even with that, he kept it classy and restrained.  The Junior Nation may well have gained some new members tonight from this.

And that was tonight's Cup race at Richmond.  Three hundred and eighty laps of filler, followed by twenty laps of what could have been sublime transformed into the ridiculous by the antics of one inarguably talented but too selfish and stubborn to fully take advantage of it arrogant punk.  No wonder Tony Stewart wants to get away from Gibbs ASAP.  If not sooner.