<table> </table> In the inner workings of their egos, some race-car drivers feel marginalized as athletes. They don&#8217;t think they get the credit and respect that is awarded to their counterparts in football, baseball and basketball.</p><p>They realize that much of that is because auto racing is a relative newcomer to the big-time sports scene and, also, because drivers tend to talk and act differently. Racing even has its own set of clich&#233;s.</p><p>But after Sunday&#8217;s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International, winner Kyle Busch got out of his car, threw his arms up and loudly played the no-respect card.</p><p>Welcome to the mainstream, NASCAR drivers.</p><p>Busch had been <em>the</em> NASCAR story through the first 19 races of the Sprint Cup season. He had had a series-best seven victories, and he had been atop the points standings for 14 weeks &#8212; including 11 weeks in a row.</p><p>In addition, he had won races in the Nationwide and Craftsman Trucks series and, early on, had hinted that he might try to become the first driver to win all three of NASCAR&#8217;s premier-series championships in the same year.</p><p>In early July, he put together back-to-back victories at Daytona and Chicago &#8212; winning those by forcing two of the best drivers in the history of the sport, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, into late-race mistakes.</p><p>But at the race after Chicago, the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis, Busch stumbled. He finished 15th in front of the largest crowd of the year. And the week after that, at Pocono Raceway, he finished 36th.</p><p>Suddenly, the racing world began talking about other drivers, other subjects. Some even suggested that the sun had set on Busch&#8217;s domination.</p><p>Gordon was one of those who observed Busch&#8217;s solar placement.</p><p>&#8220;They just haven&#8217;t shown to me what they were showing earlier in the season,&#8221; Gordon said before Sunday&#8217;s road race at Watkins Glen. &#8220;It hasn&#8217;t been that long since he&#8217;s won, but for some reason I haven&#8217;t seen the same type of performance out of them here recently. I would have thought the Brickyard and at Pocono that they would have really shined there, and they didn&#8217;t. I think they&#8217;re showing some weakness right now, so right now the bonus points are huge for them.&#8221;</p><p>After his victory on Sunday, Busch took a small swipe at his doubters.</p><p>Of Gordon&#8217;s remarks, Busch said, &#8220;It&#8217;s a head game, and we&#8217;re playing it.&#8221;</p><p>Athletes and coaches use external criticism as motivation all the time &#8212; even when there isn&#8217;t any. The criticism, or perceived criticism, goes on physical and emotional bulletin boards to light fires.</p><p>Racers have not used the tactic as much or as openly, but they do use it.</p><p>&#8220;I think you can&#8221; use criticism as motivation, Roush Fenway Racing driver Greg Biffle said. &#8220;Certainly, if somebody tells you that you can&#8217;t do it or you&#8217;re not any good, you know, or whatever the situation might be, that kind of gives you extra motivation to prove somebody wrong. That certainly can be motivation.&#8221;</p><p>Jimmie Johnson said, yes, of course, criticism fuels a fire.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s in the back of your mind,&#8221; Johnson said.</p><p>And, he said, he has put it to motivational use. Proof of that spilled forth after he won the Daytona 500 in 2006.</p><p>Johnson got out of his car and said he dedicated the victory to all the &#8220;48 haters.&#8221; He said the haters were not really on his mind during the race, but before and after, yep.</p><p>It&#8217;s not just drivers who use criticism as motivation. Teams use it to squeeze a bit more performance out of members who work in the shop and at the track on race weekends.</p><p>Johnson said that his team owner, Rick Hendrick, and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, do that. And, they will even refer to other sports&#8217; athletes and coaches to motivate during Monday &#8220;pep talks&#8221; at the race shop.</p><p>&#8220;You find things that register with people,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;And you can use those comments as motivation. You can use the critics, you can use articles, you can use all of that to help motivate your team.&#8221;</p><p>Busch probably won&#8217;t be able to rely on any of that this week. His victory at Watkins Glen put him back atop the NASCAR world and made him a tougher target for the critics.