When Kyle Busch won his first race in just his second start for Richard Childress Racing back in February at Fontana, something strange happened….cheers. When Busch did his celebratory victory bow in front of the Southern California race fans, a chorus of happy vibes rang forward from the front stretch grandstands.

Was Busch becoming liked?

For decades, the Las Vegas native had played the villain role. Now with RCR, the team that gave Dale Earnhardt 6 of his 7 Cup titles, was that enough to truly sway this fan base to his side?

I think that and Denny Hamlin’s role the last couple of seasons have given him the keys now to this distinction.

The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion grinned on Saturday and acknowledged that this season, his former teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, Hamlin, has essentially replaced him as the series’ resident “villain.” 

Hamlin being outspoken with a Podcast and having spats with the two more popular drivers of Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson could certainly sway this fan base against him.

The three-time DAYTONA 500 winner and last week’s Bristol, Tenn. race winner is now receiving more boos during driver introductions than Busch, who for seasons essentially held the role of NASCAR’s “bad boy.”

“I’m sure I could put myself right back into that category pretty easily, it only takes something spectacular to do, right,’’ said a smiling Busch, whose four Texas wins are most in the field and goes into Sunday afternoon’s race ranked sixth in the championship in his first season driving the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

“It’s different,’’ he said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been in this spot because when I first came into this sport, my brother had made a lot of enemies on and off the race track so I was kind of thrown into that right off the bat. But it’s been good to just be in a different light. It’s been fun over at RCR and a lot of people have told me about the excitement around that and me being part of the 8 car.

“Just keep rolling with it. When you’re in that spot – like I was and Denny is – you’ve got to do what Denny is doing. You’ve got to just play with it and just roll with it.

“It’s fun to watch. I’m not the villain anymore.’’

How far can Busch take this? Would a championship make him even more popular? That could arguably happen. While some felt like a playoff stay would be short lived for Busch, now that he’s in the Round of 12, anything can happen.

With what’s coming up ahead, I feel like Busch has a chance to do something special this round. For Texas, Busch has five Top-10 finishes in his last six Texas starts. He won in 2020 even. The car he’s driving now, won a year ago. Out of 32 career starts on this 1.5-mile track, Busch has four wins, 14 Top-5 finishes and 18 Top-10 results. He’s also finished seventh, sixth, first, 11th and seventh on intermediate tracks lately as well. He starts in the top 10 in Sunday’s race.

Then it’s to Talladega. He won at this track in the spring. He’s also scored the third most points (160) on superspeedway’s this season as well.

Then it’s to the ROVAL where he was third a year ago, fourth the year prior and had three Top-5 finishes in as many races to start the road racing season off with including a pair of runner-ups. He was 36th at Indy but was in the top five before an issue. This car was runner-up in 2021.