Happy Hour: Kurt Busch’s reinstatement and other SHR questions
Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to [email protected] or @NickBromberg. We’ll post them here and have a good time.
Before we get to our regularly scheduled programming, here’s an update to the continued craziness surrounding Team Xtreme. We should have known there would be things afoot when they initially were Xxxtreme Racing. Three Xs is always an indication of wackiness.
John Cohen, the team owner, told ESPN that he never got the paperwork for the civil settlement he’s involved in. As part of a settlement surrounding the failure of a nightclub proposal, Cohen is to pay $50,000 to two former business partners. However, he says he never got the order to enforce the settlement – issued earlier this year – after not changing his address with the court system,
While that may be true, settlements don’t happen without the consent of both parties. We’re not lawyers (and don’t pretend to be), but it stands to reason that Cohen has known about the agreement to repay the two men for quite some time.
Anyway, let’s start talking about teams and drivers that have a chance for a win this year.
The questions stem from this post Wednesday about the Chase waiver. And, to be blunt, the first discounts an event that took the life of someone.
As we said then, Stewart’s absence can easily be explained as a health reason. While you can quibble with the team’s desire to get a Chase waiver (though given his performance in 2014, making the Chase was a longshot), there was little doubt NASCAR would grant it if Stewart-Haas asked. It’s just that the team indicated a waiver would not be a priority, though clearly it was when Stewart returned.
With Busch, a waiver, written in the rules to be granted in only rare instances, should not have been given when NASCAR forced Busch to sit out.
Given the way that the Chase eligibility rule is written – that a driver has to attempt to qualify for every race to make the Chase – NASCAR clearly knew that Chase eligibility was jeopardized when it removed Busch from the car. Now, with Busch set to make his season debut on Sunday, his ultimate goal of a championship is still ultimately in reach. What good is a punishment if it’s really no punishment at all? Sure, NASCAR eliminated the buffer zone of Busch possibly qualifying for the Chase on points alone, but, as we again said Wednesday, the granting of the waiver can easily be inferred to be an acknowledgement of messing up by NASCAR.
The possible inferences are why the waiver needs to go and Chase eligibility should simply be defined as any driver in the top 30 in points with a win.
This makes us think back to 2013, when Jimmie Johnson was already guaranteed into the Chase before it began and he was expecting the birth of his daughter. Johnson missed practice and qualifying after his wife Chandra gave birth to their second girl, but he was back for the race.
Lydia Johnson arrived at 2 a.m. on Friday. With a berth in the postseason clinched, would anyone really have objected if Johnson stayed with his wife through Saturday and missed the race? (If you have a soul, no.) Instead, he raced at Richmond and eventually won title No. 6.
Sponsor obligations make skipping races exceptionally hard in modern NASCAR. While companies obviously cherish the increased exposure a title run brings, they also pay for a specific number of races. What would happen if a team is running a five-race deal with a company and elected to skip a race that happened to be one of the five races? Is the team refunding the sponsor? How does the sponsor feel about the lack of return on the agreement?
The teams that are Chase contenders and in the top 20 year after year simply aren’t going to skip a race. Could a team with a miracle win that’s struggling to get by consider it? Sure. But there’s that whole “make sure you’re in the top 30” thing to deter them.
And we’re still taking Truex in our Chase. The Roush cars haven’t looked like they’ve found any speed.
Oh dang, is this all series? Races only? There are 33 points races left in the Cup season. We’ll put the over/under at 20 and take the over. Should it be 25? Mind you, this is Cup Series races only.
We’re hoping like hell it’s the under though.
It first speaks to the brilliance of Rodney Childers.
Childers was crew chief at Michael Waltrip Racing before he went to SHR. He left the team after 28 races in 2013. In those 28 races, the No. 55 started in the top 10 on 11 occasions. In the final eight races, it qualified in the top 10 once. The team had 10 top 10 finishes in the first 28 races of 2013. It had none in the final eight.
The combination that Childers and Kevin Harvick have found is a magical one. While other teams can challenge them on a weekly basis, there’s no disputing that the No. 4 has consistently been the fastest car since the start of 2014.
And there’s no disputing the No. 14 has been a relative backmarker. Yes, Tony Stewart has talked about how the 2014 and 2015 rules package doesn’t suit his driving style, but we all know that great drivers are adaptable. Stewart could drive something that he doesn’t like to a win.
It’s just that Stewart doesn’t like the current combination and he doesn’t have a consistently fast car. Both Harvick and Stewart have mentioned that all four SHR drivers have a different driving style. The team can’t just put the No. 4 setups in the No. 14. But it also should be able to find a combination that works for Stewart. (Side note: this is the worst three-race stretch of Stewart’s career, and it’s four when you stretch it back to Homestead at the end of last year.)
We’re not saying that there needs to be changes on the No. 14 team. And there’s way too much time to give up on 2015 for the three-time champion. But it’s fair to say that the team needs to find something that works really soon.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
