Should he be or shouldn't he be? It's not fair. It ain't right. Boo. Hoo. Hoo.
Let's just face up to the fact that Kyle Busch didn't make the Chase, shall we? I have. His smug mug will not grace the endless Chase propaganda.
(It might just be this cold medicine that's currently making my eyes wobble in their sockets, but Kyle is starting to look like Bert of Bert and Ernie fame. I know this sounds crazy, but let us probe the facts: long, oval head, beady eyes, a chirpy voice that sounds like it's coming from someone else. He's grumpy, easily frustrated and often loses his temper. He has a brother named Kurt that looks just like him, but acts a bit better behaved. Damn, Kyle may be a Muppet. Does NASCAR's R&D lab have their Muppet-human hermaphrodite test ironed out yet?)
Anyway, Kyle will not be hoisting the Sprint Cup formerly known as Winston. No haughty, season-capping curtsy for the Instigator. Nope, it ain't happening.
And I, unlike everyone else it seems, think that that is a good thing.
A whole whopping eight points (ah, Kyle and the number eight always find each other) is what separated him from being a constant topic of discussion (at least we have that going for us). Those eight points were lost at Richmond, despite what he claimed. They were also lost at every other race, save for the wins. The regular season, to make my point clear, is still the same. The points system for the first 26 races has not changed. It is the same as it ever was.
Look, Kyle won four races. He had five more top 10s. He also had two DNFs and seven races where he finished a lap or more down. So, out of 26 races, he was competitive in nine of them (admittedly not all his doing) and not competitive in nine of them (admittedly, not all his fault). His average finish was 16.2. I believe that is called the law of averages, which makes him average (okay, slightly better than average). Should average qualify you for the Chase?
Let's look at Juan Pablo Montoya, since he's taking some guff for his qualifying route to the Chase. No wins. Eight top 10s. Five races a lap or more down. Average finish of 13.8. Greg Biffle: no wins. Ten top 10s. Four races a lap or more down. Average finish of 14.5.
Kyle simply wasn't consistent enough. Twelve other guys were. And a lack of consistency, whether it's the Chase or the old format, dooms any season, in any era, under any format. That is, and always has been, NASCAR. It's about consistency, both before the Chase was put into place and now. If the old points system were employed today, he'd have no shot at the Cup.
So, I guess the argument should be, either you are for consistency as the meter for a championship, or for wins as a meter for the championship.
My father taught me NASCAR's lure as equal parts excitement, equal parts civic pride, and equal parts history. That puts me in the consistency category. And the reason I'm glad Kyle didn't make the Chase is simply because he didn't earn it. Four wins aside, under the current qualifying format he simply wasn't consistent enough to merit inclusion.
Additionally, this will be good for Kyle, if such a thing can even exist. For his maturity, there isn't a single thing more valuable than getting humbled. The kid needs his knocks. And if missing the Chase by eight measly points teaches him the value of emotional intelligence, my money says that he'll be a Chase regular for years to come.
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