Kyle Busch indicated drivers should have more lower level success before being allowed to race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Do you agree?
Adam Cheek: I believe so. At the very least, they should have a certain number of starts in either Xfinity or the Gander Outdoor Truck Series — maybe 10 or 15 in one or the other, something like that. There should be some level of experience at the Cup level.
Zach Gillispie: I completely disagree. Jimmie Johnson only had one Xfinity win and four top fives when he entered Cup. That’s not much success, but look where he ended up. With the severe disparity in performance and budget on each side of the garage area in both NXS and MENCS, NASCAR has left a void open for less successful drivers to fill Cup rides. If it is there for the taking, a driver has every single right to take it.
Amy Henderson: Experience, they should absolutely have (and if they have a Cup license, NASCAR has determined that they have enough of it). Success? Â Who gets to decide what that even means? Not every driver has had the opportunity Busch has had, never toiling in underfunded equipment. And as much as Busch would have you believe otherwise, talent alone isn’t always enough to land a top-tier ride. Â It’s as much about who you know and what they can do for you or someone else as it is about success. There are plenty of drivers out there with more late-model wins than much of the Cup field who never get a shot. Winning in the lower series might land a driver a better ride, and maybe if Cup drivers like Busch weren’t filling those seats for several races, there would be more opportunity for that. You can’t fault a driver for taking a ride that’s not competitive if the alternative is no ride at all.
Joy Tomlinson:Â Drivers don’t need to win in the Xfinity or Truck series to compete in Cup, though it would be advisable. For one, it’s difficult to contend for wins in underfunded equipment. Secondly, Cup drivers like Kyle Busch competing in the lower tiers often snag the victory over Xfinity or Truck series regulars. While I do agree with the sentiment that it gives those racers a chance to beat Cup drivers, it is very tough to do. Finally, winning isn’t the only thing that shows driving ability. Not everyone can win a race, and many top teams win multiple races each year (like Joe Gibbs Racing).
Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch are now tied with 17 Cup wins apiece since 2017. Who do you think has been the better driver over that span and why?
Tomlinson: Busch has been slightly better than Martin Truex Jr. since 2017. Busch has a better average finish in both 2018 (8.3) and 2019 (8.6) than Truex (10.7 and 10.9). Busch has also led 743 more laps than Truex since the beginning of the 2017 season. Though Truex has won a championship in that span, he hasn’t been as consistent as Busch has so far. Both drivers are elite and both have their good and bad days, but Busch seems to have the marginal edge.
Gillispie:Â Truex. While the statistics may show that Busch has a slight edge over Truex, Truex has been in the best stretch of his career, capped off by the 2017 MENCS championship. In a world where championships are emphasized, Truex’s one championship in that span over Busch’s goose egg gives Truex a slight edge.
Cheek: Truex has been more impressive. Busch is the better overall driver, but Truex’s success once he reached Furniture Row Racing and beyond has been exponential; his talent has really shone through and he’s shown how solid of a driver he is. Busch is a champion, and he’s been the better driver, but Truex has shown how great of a driver he can be.
Henderson: Tough call, but I say Truex as well. Even as a JGR affiliate, Furniture Row Racing was at a disadvantage as a single-car team based two thousand miles from the rest of the sport. That Truex delivered the team a championship is a feat that goes under-appreciated at times. In this time span, Truex has gone from an also-ran to a driver who will be nominated for the Hall of Fame if not inducted someday.
Grant Enfinger saw his regular season Truck Series championship translate into a first-round elimination. Should regular season champions get an automatic advancement to a certain point?
Gillispie:Â Absolutely not. NASCAR does not need to be implementing more playoff rules; there already is enough. With the current format, I like the emphasis that every race matters in the grand scheme of things, something that NASCAR has marketed with this current system. Grant Enfinger collected enough points in every race this season to rightfully earn the regular-season crown, but he did not collect enough points in the first round and was rightfully eliminated from the playoffs. If NASCAR grandfathers someone in, it completely takes away from the notion that each race is important.
Henderson: Well, here’s the thing: this playoff format is supposed to reward the regular season more, but it obviously backfired here. I don’t think you just give a free pass to Homestead, but maybe more playoff points for the season title, so that it would take complete disaster to eliminate them? Â I don’t know. This is why a one-race championship is such a terrible idea–it’s far from a guarantee that the best drivers all year will even be in it at the end.
Cheek: I wouldn’t be surprised if NASCAR implements it at some point, but I don’t think so. Truck drivers, for example, should battle it out all year to make the playoffs and more or less be on a level playing field come the playoffs. If anything, give them some more bonus points, but all eight, 12 or 16 drivers should all be on a relatively even level at playoff time.
Tomlinson: Well, no, but the Truck Series shouldn’t even have the playoffs (but that’s for another day). Enfinger hadn’t won a race yet this year and finished 13th at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park; he really needed a better finish than that to prove he was a contender. Guys like Ross Chastain, Austin Hill and Brett Moffitt have all won multiple races this year and have shown that they’re talented enough to compete at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Enfinger wasn’t quite there yet.
With Cole Custer, Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick still reigning as the Big Three in the Xfinity Series, would it be good or bad for the series if none ended up claiming the championship?
Henderson: It’s not good. The best driver all year should be the champion, or at least one of the best. Nobody else is close to those three, and it would really be a shame to see another driver take it. It’s happened before, of course, and those titles always seem somehow less…that’s not fair to the eventual champion, but it’s a product of a badly-executed system.
Cheek:Â It’s not the best look, but it’s also not a bad look. Austin Cindric‘s more than likely the fourth-best driver this year, and given a solid playoff run could more than likely put himself in rightful contention for the title. And of course, the elimination format plays with the perception of the Big Three and things like that; heck, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick or Cole Custer could have a few bad races and be eliminated in the first round. Last year, three of the four final drivers were the Big Three and none of them came away with the title. The unpredictability of a label such as the Big Three and having several dominant drivers during the season can resonate both positively and negatively with the sport’s audience.
Tomlinson:Â It would be bad for the drivers since they won all those races. I think it would depend on if the champion was likeable or if they won during the season (like Chase Briscoe or Austin Cindric). While they are the favorites, they still have to avoid trouble in these last few months to ensure their spots in the final four. It definitely makes for an intriguing storyline.
Gillispie:Â We sort of figured it out last year when Joey Logano dethroned the Big Three Cup drivers to claim the Cup championship last season at Homestead. There was a lot of criticism because many individuals believed that the best driver did not win. While there is some negativity associated with this connotation, a four-driver shootout regardless of who is in the Big Three provides much-needed entertainment that glues people to their TV sets. They all rightfully got to the final round, and thus, they all rightfully to some degree deserve to win.
About the author
Frank Velat has been an avid follower of NASCAR and other motorsports for over 20 years. He brings a blend of passionate fan and objective author to his work. Frank offers unique perspectives that everyone can relate to, remembering the sport's past all the while embracing its future. Follow along with @FrankVelat on Twitter.
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Funny you should ask the person who has stolen the most lunch money from the lower tiers. Kyle has done the most to build the trucks up and the most to tear them down.
So, if Kyle wants the ‘lower tier drivers to win more, he should stop running in trucks and Xfinity, right?
This comment here…what? Elliot Sadler has done a fine job of taking “lunch money”….
Just shows the talent gap, Kyle beat CUP drivers when he was in that series. Maybe outside of Bell there really isnt a lot of talent down there?
All this debate about funding, etc. is just a distraction from the fact that someone who is 17 laps down — whether an under-funded no-name or a top star having a bad day — should be out of the groove and out of the way of the competitive cars as a matter of ethics.
Smithley wasn’t racing to stay on the lead lap or even to get the lucky dog spot. He wasn’t even racing for position with someone else on the same lap that he was on. He was SEVENTEEN LAPS DOWN.
I agree with you there, in the older days if a driver was that slow he would be running the bottom groove all the way around the track and even pull off on the apron to let the lead lap cars drive by. Has nothing to do with equipment or experience even tho that is what Kyle called out.
Agree 100%.
I’d go a step further. Once you are 15 laps or more down. You are parked. Why have someone out there that can’t do anything but get in the way or cause a caution.
That should have been – Once you are 15 laps or more down you are parked once the second stage is done. – I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention.
Yea, I don’t know about that cause there are still points that could be made up.
If a big wreck happens with 20 to go and you are still cruising around 19 laps down, all those knocked out of the race are for position, which is money.
Just have to be alert and get out of the way, I get that he held his line but I finally saw the replay…he was going slow and I am actually shocked he was running above race minimum speed.
The race minimum speed is the biggest joke there is. I don’t think they really enforce it.
I am not sure as well, may only be enforced if you have taken on crash damage. Sure didn’t look like it was in this particular case.
Haha he gives the nod to Truex cause championships matter. Hardly anyone even cares who is crowned the winner at Homestead anymore…err…champion. So what, guy wins the race and the championship big deal.
As for Busch and the Truex debate, didn’t Truex beat Busch for the Busch Championship head to head, now that is a championship trophy I can stand behind. Makes Busch’s argument that if you have talent you’ll be in a top ride look null, Truex beat Busch head to head and had to race in underfunded equipment for years until FRR turned around.
Should lower level success be necessary to race in cup? Ms. Patrick comes to mind. People would have to get creative to spin her results as positive pre-Cup. People would have to get creative to spin her results in Cup as positive. Old DW called her the face of NASCAR in 2013.
princess sparkle pony. wonder how she’s doing with aaron rogers and the nfl?
I can’t say I have much sympathy for Enfinger getting knocked out. He didn’t really contend for wins all season and as mentioned in the article, Chastain, Moffitt and Hill now have 3+ wins and have been consistently faster all year. The Truck Series standings were really warped though with Kyle Busch winning his 5 starts.
ThorSport had 3 trucks in the playoffs, so they were really pushing the resources. And in the regular season, it seemed like Enfinger was more concerned about stage points or stage wins and not getting the best finishes possible in order to get those wins.
Long gone are the days like back in the 90s when you had genuine stars running in the Busch series (at that time.) You knew all about these drivers as well as you knew the Cup drivers. Eventually, they would get a chance to run in the Cup series and you continued to root for them.
Unfortunately, nowadays all you hear about in the lower series is how Busch is winning every race. He is killing both of these series by taking away wins and fame from the regular drivers in the series.
I have no problem with Cup drivers driving periodically in the lower series, but it should be limited to 2-3 races each season. Not allowing them to run the majority of the races.
I hope it out drive happens not in those brats I just don’t have the bank account they have to buy my ride