Instead, it seems like Busch (pictured at right after winning at Talladega) has a different personality than most of us; the word ‘driven’ seems to understate the case greatly. He seems to be the mega-personality, the one who must succeed at any cost.

This came to me in an epiphany of sorts on Saturday night, early in the race at Darlington. Busch led early and showed quickly that he had one of the cars to beat. If you listened to the broadcast, you heard Darrell Waltrip urge Busch to go with conventional wisdom and take a greater sense of caution; running so hard, so early would use up the equipment and surely take away any chance at a win.

But that’s not Busch. At least not now.

He seems bent not only on winning, but on dominating. He led a race-high 169 laps but never seemed satisfied with his lead over the second-place driver. He pushed and kept pushing.

At times, he pushed too hard. It was hard not to notice that Busch had slapped the wall more than once; he finished the race with a right-side paint job that had morphed into a Jackson Pollock masterpiece. Carl Edwards may have had a cleaner car, but he wasn’t in victory lane.

Really, there are lots of times Busch pushes too hard. There’s a reason he has the reputation for aggressiveness that he does.

But it all seems tied in to a greater goal: whipping your rear end.

He speaks his mind, no matter how un-PC it may be. He’s brash, but he’s got the talent to back it up. Rick Hendrick decided Busch wasn’t worth the continual headaches and landed Dale Earnhardt Jr. instead; it’s hard, even now, to disagree with such a decision.

Busch landed with Joe Gibbs and is a win away from equaling his total from the past three seasons. That he has thrived at Gibbs shouldn’t be a surprise; Joe and J.D. Gibbs have had plenty of experience dealing with hard-charging personalities, like Tony Stewart.

The question with Stewart had always been this: How to reign in parts of his personality without compromising what makes him a winner on the track?

Maybe that’s a question worthy of asking about Busch. And maybe there’s just as simple an answer: You can’t.

From an armchair psychology perspective, Busch is the kind of guy who’s going to pound you, who’s going to leave you with no doubt who’s the better driver. If that upsets some people along the way, so be it; it’s merely collateral damage. If that pushes him over the edge from time to time, so be it; he’ll be back next week to show you again.

It’s impressive to see someone with such determination, such clarity of focus, do what he does best. Not all of us can do that. And not all of us are going to be happy with people who do.

Think about that the next time you’re tempted to send Busch a black cowboy outfit and declare him NASCAR’s evil new force.

• PERHAPS SOMEONE CAN CLARIFY this for me. I watched the race in nearly its entirety, but I wasn’t able to tell what kind of fuel those cars were using.

Exxon? BP? Chevron? Texaco? Hess?

Too bad there’s not a sarcasm font for this thing.

For some reason, we had to be reminded five times that those cars were running a certain brand of gasoline. Fox analyst Larry McReynolds reminded us four times; Matt Yocum once during a report from pit road.

You know what the brand is. They got enough plugs; I don’t need to add one more.

Was the broadcast really enhanced by such mentions? Was anyone really going to think that the drivers were burning Valero?

I expect it from the drivers. It’s their job.

I’d prefer not to expect it from professional announcers, but, well, here we are.

(Photo by Ron Sanders/Associated Press)