NASCAR: Unfair to judge Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland on ‘win and in’ playoffs

Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland failed to qualify for the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series playoffs despite solid finishes in the regular season standings.

If you would have bet on Kyle Busch Motorsports having zero drivers in the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series playoffs before the 2019 season began, you would not have been hard-pressed to find somebody to take you up on that bet at any amount of money.

But the regular season is in the books, and the eight playoff qualifiers have been determined.

Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland are not among these eight drivers whose championship hopes are alive heading into the three-round, seven-race playoffs.

Burton finished the regular season in sixth place in the standings with nine top 10 finishes, including seven top five finishes. Among these top five finishes were four career-high third place finishes. His average finish of 10.81 was the sixth best among the full-time drivers.

Gilliland finished the regular season in seventh place in the standings with nine top 10 finishes, including three top five finishes. Among these top five finishes were two top three finishes, including a career-high second place finish in the race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. His average finish of 11.69 was the seventh best among the full-time drivers.

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But because of how many drivers below them in the standings won a regular season race, Burton and Gilliland were left out of the playoffs.

In fact, of the top eight drivers in the championship standings, only the top four qualified for the playoffs. Fifth place Ben Rhodes of ThorSport Racing was also left on the outside looking in.

Ninth place Austin Hill of Hattori Racing Enterprises won two races, 10th place Johnny Sauter of ThorSport Racing won one race, 12th place Tyler Ankrum of DGR-Crosley won one race and 14th place Ross Chastain of Niece Motorsports won three races, although only two took place after he declared for Truck Series points.

Ankrum missed three races early in the season due to his age. Despite his victory, he was outperformed by Burton and Gilliland as a whole, recording an average finish of 14.31.

Chastain did not declare for Truck Series points until halfway through the regular season, although he competed in the series throughout the entire regular season.

He established himself as a championship favorite with his three victories, six top five finishes and 13 top 10 finishes — and one more in each category had it not been for his disqualification at Iowa Speedway. His average finish was 9.25 — 7.31 had he retained his victory at Iowa Speedway.

Even early on in the season, Kyle Busch Motorsports team owner Kyle Busch was not shy about calling out Burton and Gilliland for what he did not deem to be acceptable performances.

So it’s hard to see a playoff lockout going over well with the boss.

And if Busch is irritated, he is justified in being irritated.

Will Gilliland having competed in 41 races for the team and Burton having competed in 31, no drivers in Kyle Busch Motorsports history have competed in more races for the team without winning a race. A total of 40 drivers have driven for the team.

Plus, Kyle Busch Motorsports won six of the regular season’s 16 races. Busch himself won each of the five races in which he competed, and he dominated them, combining to lead a total of 575 (72.33%) of the 795 laps that were contested without even failing to lead more than 65% of the laps in an individual race.

Greg Biffle, in his first NASCAR start since the 2016 Cup Series finale and his first Truck Series start since the 2004 Truck Series finale, was also victorious at Texas Motor Speedway, the site of his lone start of the season.

Additionally, Kyle Busch Motorsports had a driver in the Championship 4 in each of the first three seasons that the Championship 4 was utilized in the Truck Series. Christopher Bell won the championship in the 2017 season after finishing in third place in the 2016 season, and Noah Gragson finished in second last season.

Before the Championship 4 was implemented, Erik Jones won the 2015 championship driving for the team.

This year, they don’t even have a playoff driver.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

The driver who ended the 2019 regular season with the best average finish was ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton. His series-best average finish was 7.25, and he finished in third place in the regular season standings.

But sitting in 10th place on the final lap of the regular season finale at Michigan International Speedway, he had to hope that Hill hung on for the victory.

Had GMS Racing’s Sheldon Creed or Young’s Motorsports Tyler Dippel won the race, they would have vaulted themselves into the playoff picture, and Crafton would have been bumped to ninth place in the playoff picture, below the playoff cut line.

Arguably the best driver throughout the entire 16-race, six-month regular season would have failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Hill beat Creed to the line by exactly one-eighth of a second (0.125 seconds), and Dippel finished just 0.299 seconds behind Creed.

There is no doubt that Burton and Gilliland could have done a lot better this year. Let’s face it; the best that either one of them can do now is finish in ninth place in the championship standings, and that’s even if one of them wins each of the season’s seven playoff races.

However, not to take anything away from the current “win and in” playoff system, but when these two drivers only missed the playoffs because of a system that nearly prevented the driver with the best average finish from making the playoffs, it’s completely unfair to judge them based solely on the fact that they aren’t among the eight playoff drivers, especially when they both finished the regular season in the top seven in the standings and displayed flashes of their potential often.

A sixth place finish in the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series regular season standings for the 18-year-old Harrison Burton and a seventh place finish for the 19-year-old Todd Gilliland are more than commendable even though they didn’t win any races. The only reason this is even a discussion point is because of the playoff system.

It can’t be denied that neither driver did what he needed to do to stay in championship contention beyond the conclusion of the regular season. Improvement is needed, period. But the idea that they had horrible seasons and need to be ousted because of it is far beyond reality.