A new era in NASCAR or just an overrated driver?

As Kyle Busch continues to win races, it begs the question of is this one of the greatest seasons by one driver in the last 30-plus seasons?

Busch's win in Sunday's race at Dover was his fourth Cup victory of the season and kept him atop the points lead. That he's won four of the first 13 races (putting him on pace to win 11 Cup races is remarkable. Also note that Sunday's win was his 10th NASCAR victory in 35 starts across the three divisions -- Cup, Nationwide and Trucks.

Although Jimmie Johnson won 10 races last year in Cup, NASCAR hasn't seen the domination Busch is showing that often. But that leads to the question that is what Busch is doing really that noteworthy?

Of his 10 total wins, four are in Cup, four are in Nationwide and two in Trucks. Is the competition strong enough in truck and Nationwide to merit Busch's season special consideration? If he continues at this pace, would it be a more remarkable season than when Jeff Gordon won 13 times in 33 races _ nearly 40 percent of the time _ in 1998? What about when Rusty Wallace won 10 of 30 races (but not the title because of 5 DNFs) in 1993? How about when Dale Earnhardt won 11 of 29 races (37.9 percent) in 1987? Or when Bill Elliott won 11 of 28 races (but not the title) in 1985? Or when Darrell Waltrip won 24 of 61 races (39.3 percent) when he won the 1981-82 titles?

Anyway, you get the point. Is it worthwhile to consider Busch's success across the board when comparing what he's doing with drivers in other eras? Just a thought.

Busch was asked about his success in all three series after his Dover win on Sunday. Here's what he said:

"For me, I believe there's a way that you drive the trucks, there's a way you drive the Nationwide cars,'' Busch said.  "That's full out, as fast as you can go. The harder you go, the faster you can go. These cars here, you have to pace yourself a little bit. You have to slow them down. You can drive them hard for the first three or four laps, then you have to start backing off, start slowing down, slowing up your entry, slowing down the center, just kind of moseying around the corner, trying to make the thing stick in one particular groove. I've found something that's worked for me here recently in the past few weeks. I found it at Darlington. I won there. Then I finished third at Lowe's. Then we won here again today. You know, we're gaining on the car as well. But I think a lot of it is a little bit of driver. You got to stay calm when you can. You’ve got to get going when the time's right and when you can get riled up.''

# Jamie McMurray will be driving for another team next year, according to one report Sunday citing unidentified sources. McMurray finished 10th Sunday. UPDATE: McMurray denies report.

# In case you missed it, here's Tony Stewart's comments after he was collected in the multi-car wreck early in the race that started after contact between David Gilliland and Elliott Sadler: 

COMMENTS ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here; comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its websites. Users must follow agreed-upon rules: Be civil, be clean, be on topic; don't attack private individuals, other users or classes of people. Read the full rules here.
- Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the report violation link below it.