What's Kurt Busch to do?

"Kurt Busch has the charisma of a jar of mayonnaise."

That was the comment that jumped up and grabbed my attention in the NASCAR.COM chatroom during Busch's press conference following his win in Michigan. No doubt it was worthy of a chuckle, but in the end, it made me wonder what in the world we want from Busch because -- even if the metamorphosis isn't complete -- the Penske driver is a changed man.

Beau Estes co-hosts the Jack Daniel's Post-Race Show with Nikki Alexander. It can be seen following every Nextel Cup race live on NASCAR.COM.

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In fairness, to say Busch has had a bit of a checkered past with NASCAR fans is like saying North Korea has a small credibility problem in the community of nations. I get it; Kurt didn't win Mr. Popularity at the Driver / Fan senior prom. In fact the distaste for his antics goes across NASCAR lines into mainstream sports. In February 2006, GQ listed him as number 3 on its list of "most hated" athletes -- just behind Barry Bonds and Terrell Owens ... ouch!

Busch's comment to a Phoenix area police officer who stopped Kurt in 2005 makes a sane person wince, "Aren't you supposed to be directing traffic somewhere?" The run-in was the last straw for Roush Fenway Racing who soon after got out of the business of being "Kurt Busch apologists."

My point though is not to bash Busch, but again to ask -- what more do we want from the guy or any of our sports stars who try to alter their personality in order to please fans, sponsors and the media? Busch has tried, in some sense, to change the very fiber of who he is -- often with mixed results.

Clearly, he has made sweeping changes in his public persona. Following his win in Michigan, the first thing I heard from his in-car audio was "It's Miller Time." This is the same guy that almost lost his sponsorship from Newell Rubbermaid after he won the championship in 2004. Now he is a sponsors dream.

He truly appears to be a fiery guy who sometimes loses control on the track, but now his press conferences are about as entertaining as an afternoon spent reformatting a hard drive. He was portrayed as too arrogant and to a large extent that might have been true, but the guy is in his twenties. Does this label last a lifetime?

Busch is not the first famous athlete to feel "burned" by the fans or media in the past. Usually the athlete who feels victimized clams up and gives stock answers to thoughtful questions in order to avoid having their feet put to the fire again.

In fact, Tiger Woods thought he was off the record with a GQ (how did they get into this story twice) reporter early in his career and when his comments were printed -- the world's best golfer felt violated and henceforth took on a more guarded nature in his public dealings. The disappointing side to this is that privately Woods is known to be quite intelligent and no doubt has much more to offer everyone with his thoughts and influence on a wide array of subjects.

Unfortunately we live in the age of the sanitized vanilla corporate pitchman / athlete -- notice which word was last in the previous sentence. So much money is involved across the sports landscape at the intersection of athletes and sponsorship that of late, the actual event seems a bit lost. Worse still, at this point it doesn't seem like there is any going back.

For some reason that I will never understand, people tend to buy products athletes endorse and to their credit NASCAR drivers "get it" more than most other professional sportsmen and women. This is to say that prior to expressing their honest joy at winning, fans can expect a contrived comment that is more staged than the Trojan Horse and is often painful to watch. Just last week, Steve Williams talked to me about this. Still, no matter how awful the delivery, the sale still works and right now Busch is working wonders for Miller Lite. (Continued)