Does Kyle Busch Making The Chase Hurt The Sport?
It’s no secret that Kyle Busch has been on a roll in the Sprint Cup Series lately. He’s won four races, led 320 laps and only sits 13 points out of a spot in The Chase. While this may be good news for Busch fans and some fans in general, it also brings into question the legitimacy of our sport and how we determine our champion at the end of the season.
Does Kyle Busch deserve a Chase spot come September. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Don’t get me wrong, Kyle Busch is on a historic run that that may never be repeated again in the history of the sport and should be congratulated for that, but his historic run could raise questions about how a driver who has only competed in 11 races this season deserves a Chase spot and if its far to other drivers who have competed this entire season.
Now, this doesn’t mean NASCAR should deny Kyle Busch entry into The Chase this year if he is able to race his way in during the final five races of the season, but it does mean that NASCAR officials might want to go back to the drawing board and think about creating a criteria for drivers who are seeking waivers into The Chase.
The first thing that NASCAR officials need to straighten out is the amount of races that a driver is able to miss and still be eligible for a Chase spot in September. Like it or not, the current rule is damaging the sport of NASCAR and it really needs a good hard look at to prevent from happening again.
How does this damage the sport you may ask? Well, let’s look at the sport of football for moment. What if something like this happened in their sport? Should a team still be eligible for the playoffs, despite missing one third of the season? Is it even remotely fair to the other teams that have been working their tails off all season?
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Whether fans want to admit it or not, NASCAR’s inconsistent rule making and their attempts to create artificial excitement within the sport are making NASCAR look like nothing more than a reality show on wheels. A reality show on wheels that is starting to rub a lot of traditional fans the wrong way.
Seriously, name one other sport that has these kinds of rules to determine a championship. In fact, try to name an individual sport that would allow one of their competitors to still fight for the championship, despite missing 1/3 of the season. If you can’t, then you’re starting to understand the issue here.
Not only that, what does a rule like this do the competitiveness of our sport. If a driver can miss a third of the season and still have a chance to make it into the championship, then what’s the point of running the entire season at all? It’s not right for the other drivers to run the entire season, and Busch just come in and steal away the title at the end of the year.
I understand that these men and woman are competitive and want to be in the racecar as much as possible. I understand that Busch relentlessly rehabbed for two months to get himself back into the car, but that still doesn’t negate the fact that he has missed 11 races this year. Not only that, if Busch does make The Chase, it will knock a driver who raced full time out of The Chase as well. Does that even begin to sound right?
If anything, NASCAR needs to have better criteria for these Chase waivers. They should make it so a driver can’t miss any more than five race a year and most win two races in order to make The Chase in September. That might sound a little severe and unreasonable, but it also gives a rightful advantage to those who have raced the entire season.
In the end, it’s up to NASCAR what should happen here. They can listen to their traditional fan base, and keep things how they are, or they could listen to newer fans and actually legitimize their playoff system to be more than just the joke of the sporting world. Its gut check time NASCAR. Time to make a choice.