At the top level of stock car auto racing in the world, it goes without saying that the drivers on the track should be the world's best stock car racers.
In the NASCAR Cup Series, this mostly holds true. Though a driver such as Cody Ware may only have his ride because of nepotism, or Riley Herbst his because he brings funding, nobody out there is demonstrating a straight-up inability to drive a race car on a weekly basis.
In the two lower levels, the Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series, things get a bit murkier. There are a number of drivers who clearly, simply from watching the races, have no business being on the track, and the longer their employers and the sanctioning body allow them to compete, the more of a disservice it is to the rest of NASCAR.
NASCAR and its teams are enabling an unacceptable driving standard
Kris Wright was the culprit of a completely senseless accident at Texas Motor Speedway this past weekend, when he held up Justin Allgaier while being lapped and caused both of them to crash.
Wright had been running noticeably off the pace from even the other slower cars in the field prior to the incident, and he was indecisive about which lane to use while letting the leaders by. That caused Allgaier to slam into the back of him, taking a driver who had led 99 laps up to that point out of contention.
Keep in mind, this isn't even the most egregious accident Wright has caused this season. In the season-opening United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway, he locked up his brakes entering pit road under green and pile-drove into Josh Bilicki. He then proceeded to blame his spotter for the incident while getting into a flame war with Bilicki on social media.
Through 12 races, Wright sits 29th in Xfinity Series points, which is last out of every full-time competitor and 50 points behind the next closest driver.
He is driving for an Our Motorsports team that has shown the ability to be competitive and finished 15th in points just last season with Anthony Alfredo behind the wheel. It's not a problem of inexperience, either. Wright has 75 career starts between the Xfinity and Truck Series dating back to 2020.
In past eras of NASCAR, when teams were less dependent on drivers who bring built-in sponsorship, someone as thoroughly inept as Wright would have driven his way out of the sport by now.
The same can be said about Toni Breidinger, who is 23rd in Truck Series points (ahead of only two other full-timers) while driving for the same TRICON Garage race team that points leader Corey Heim drives for.
At Texas, Breidinger made an extremely dangerous maneuver by cutting to the garage area directly in the path of Carson Hocevar, who was exiting his pit stall behind her.
Neither Wright nor Breidinger are racing in NASCAR's top three series because of their talent. They have their seats because they bought them, and while this is a necessary evil in some cases, a line must be drawn.
If a driver is not only horrendously uncompetitive but also putting the rest of the drivers on the track and the crews on pit road in danger on a regular basis, their team must take the appropriate actions.
And if they won't, then perhaps it's time for NASCAR to make its licensing process stricter.