NASCAR: Kyle Busch’s win still had championship implications
By Asher Fair
Kyle Busch is not eligible to win the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship, but his win at Texas Motor Speedway still had title implications.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch became the first driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series playoff race despite not being eligible to win the championship since Matt Kenseth won the round of 8 race at Phoenix Raceway back in November of 2017.
Busch was eliminated after the round of 12 of this year’s playoffs, marking his first elimination prior to the Championship since 2014 and the earliest ever elimination for a reigning champion.
Entering Wednesday’s round of 8 race at Texas Motor Speedway, Busch was still winless in the 2020 season. He had never had a winless season in 15 seasons as a full-time driver, and this race was the antepenultimate race of the year.
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But he pulled it off, and his 16 consecutive winning seasons ranks in a third place tie on the all-time list behind only Richard Petty (18 straight from 1960 to 1977) and David Pearson (1964 to 1980).
While Busch did not advance to the Championship 4 due to his win since he had already been eliminated from championship contention, his win still had major championship implications because of who finished in second place. Busch was saving fuel for most of the final stint, with teammate Martin Truex Jr., who is still in the championship hunt, closing. When Busch took the checkered flag, he did it by a mere 0.468 seconds ahead of Truex.
Had Busch run out of fuel on the final lap, which he admitted after the race he thought was going to happen, Truex would have won the race to lock himself into the Championship 4 for the fourth consecutive season and fifth time in the last six years.
Through two races of the round of 8, we would have had two drivers from outside of the top four in points lock themselves into the Championship 4.
Truex, who entered this race 51 points below the Championship 4 cut line, sits in seventh place in the standings while Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who sits in sixth, won the round of 8 opener at Kansas Speedway to clinch a spot in the winner-take-all round at Phoenix Raceway.
Here is the playoff picture entering the round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway.
Rank – Driver: Points (+/- cut line)
1st – Joey Logano: 4094 (CLINCHED)
2nd – Kevin Harvick: 4137 (+42)
3rd – Denny Hamlin: 4122 (+27)
4th – Brad Keselowski: 4120 (+25)
————CHAMPIONSHIP 4 CUT LINE————
5th – Alex Bowman: 4095 (-25)
5th – Chase Elliott: 4095 (-25)
7th – Martin Truex Jr.: 4084 (-36)
8th – Kurt Busch: 4039 (-81)
Had Truex been able to secure the victory, take a look at how that would have negatively affected the other drivers in the championship mix, sans Logano.
Rank – Driver: Points (+/- cut line)
1st – Joey Logano: 4094 (CLINCHED)
2nd – Martin Truex Jr.: 4089 (CLINCHED)
3rd – Kevin Harvick: 4137 (+17)
4th – Denny Hamlin: 4122 (+2)
————CHAMPIONSHIP 4 CUT LINE————
5th – Brad Keselowski: 4120 (-2)
6th – Alex Bowman: 4095 (-27)
6th – Chase Elliott: 4095 (-27)
8th – Kurt Busch: 4039 (-83)
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A Truex win would have made Harvick and Hamlin 25 points closer to the cut line, while Keselowski would have lost his 25-point gap over the cut line and dropped to two points below it (27-point swing).
Bowman, Elliott and Busch would only have fallen two points further back, but Bowman and Elliott would have an additional driver to pass via points to secure a Championship 4 spot.
It’s safe to say that these six drivers were pulling for the #18 team in the closing laps.