Brian France wants to get Kyle Busch in the Chase if possible
If Kyle Busch wins a race before the Chase for the Sprint Cup upon his return to the series, there may be a good chance he’d make the Chase.
NASCAR Chairman Brian France, speaking at an Associated Press Sports Editors meeting, made it clear that he wants to find a way to get Kyle Busch in the Chase.
“Depends on when he comes back of course, but it’ll be more likely than not that we’re going to try to figure out how to accommodate him, which is the beauty of our playoff system,” France said Thursday during a meeting of The Associated Press Sports Editors at the NASCAR offices in Manhattan.
“What happened to him was on us,” he said. “We’ll balance a lot of things at that point when we have to make a decision, but we’re inclined to want to figure that out for sure.”
Busch said last week that he hoped NASCAR would find a way to make him Chase eligible if he won a race upon his return. Current NASCAR rules say a driver must be in the top 30 in the points standings to be eligible to make the Chase. Because he’s still sidelined from a broken leg and broken foot sustained in a February crash where he hit a non-SAFER barrier protected wall, it’s incredibly unlikely Busch will be in the top 30 in the points standings when the Chase begins.
Of course, for this conversation to become reality, Busch will have to win a race. And with likely 12 or fewer races to do so upon his return, he won’t have many opportunities. However, there’s absolutely no reason this should be even a serious conversation at this point.
No matter the intentions, admitting Busch into this year’s Chase would further undermine the system that NASCAR has tried so hard to pass off as legitimate since the beginning of 2014.
NASCAR has already issued waivers to Chase drivers before, however, the waivers issued to Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers and Kurt Busch all applied to a previous (and unnecessary) provision stating that drivers must compete in every race. Stewart was inside the top 30 at the time of his waiver in 2014, Vickers had a significant chance of doing so before being sidelined with blood clots again (would he receive the same treatment as Kyle Busch if he comes back?), and Kurt Busch is already inside the top 30 in points despite competing in five of eight races in 2015.
Playoff systems in all American sports are not indicative of the regular season; look at the Kansas City Royals last season or the Pittsburgh Steelers’ run to a Super Bowl win as a No. 6 seed in 2005. However, teams must achieve success throughout the season to get to the playoffs. While NASCAR wants to promote winning as everything when it comes to the Chase system, one race win shouldn’t simply equal a successful season.
If it did, why was the top 30 rule installed in the first place? By putting in the rule, NASCAR clearly wanted to incentivize teams and drivers to run the entirety of the season before the Chase. And in writing it, NASCAR knew there could be a chance a major injury forces a driver to miss enough time to fall outside the top 30 in points.
After all, officials saw what happened to Denny Hamlin when he slammed into a non-SAFER barrier protected wall in 2013. To think there wouldn’t be a scenario where a driver sustains serious injuries by slamming into a bare concrete wall again is ignorant at best.
But it seems that France hasn’t learned from his mistake in 2013 when he added Jeff Gordon as a 13th driver to the Chase after a race manipulation incident at Richmond. It was an incident that clearly undermined his sport’s credibility, yet he apparently desires to make a very similar mistake once again if given the opportunity. Would Busch be added in as a 17th driver? Would a deserving driver based on points be knocked out at his expense? Would this even be a topic if it was David Gilliland and not Busch?
NASCAR has worked feverishly since 2004 to promote the Chase as a grander and greater alternative than the season-long points format it had in place since the sport’s inception. And that work increased in 2014 when the one-race “winner take all” format was introduced. NASCAR knew it was an incredibly stark departure from the days of Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.
France’s sport has positives. It’s producing good racing, has a monstrous television deal in its back pocket and has a bunch of nationally-recognizable stars. Yet by showing a preference to tweak the sport’s parameters for settling a champion whenever he sees fit, France pushes away the mainstream credibility NASCAR has tried so hard to achieve.
If NASCAR wants the current Chase format to catch on, its rules need to be left alone. And if those rules mean a star misses out on the playoffs, so be it. While you can convincingly argue that NASCAR’s blithe disregard for SAFER barriers contributed to Busch’s unfortunate injury, there shouldn’t be yet another scramble to make up for a mistake at the expense of the sport’s championship.
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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!
