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5 Points to Ponder: Is Kyle Busch About to Steal a Playoff Spot?

1. Playoffs or Not, Kyle Busch Could Make Things Very Exciting

If you want to know what a shot in the arm is, look no further than how things went for Kyle Busch on Monday (Aug. 19) at Michigan International Speedway.

His fourth-place finish was his best result since in May at Dover, but just his second top five since being part of the thrilling three-wide finish near the beginning of the season in Atlanta Motor Speedway.

What’s more is that the No. 8 came away with not just a stage win: His 24 laps led at Michigan were the third-most for Busch this season.

If the playoffs were set right now, Busch would be on the outside looking in.

But if you go back to a week ago after Richmond Raceway, there was a bigger picture of what that day meant for Richard Childress Racing. Beyond all of the talk about how Austin Dillon won and the way he did it, there is this: RCR all of a sudden is a group that knows it can show up and put a race together and run near the front, and it has done that the last two races.

With confidence like that, it’s hard to count Busch out the next two races with a postseason spot on the line.

2. Start Times Need More Give & Take

Putting a schedule of events together in motorsports is not easy.

As the stage gets larger, it’s even more difficult as the key parties with different agendas increase.

Many of us likely grew up racing home from church on Sunday in time for a 1 p.m. race broadcast. Those times are no longer with us, and TV networks cannot be blamed if they prefer mid-afternoon broadcast windows.

But as Sunday afternoon illustrated, a start time in the middle of the afternoon at a track with no lights to illuminate the race surface is lunacy. That’s not to say each track needs lights. It’d be hard to blame track owners for not wanting to put millions of dollars in to have lights for just one or two weekends per year.

But when you start a race later, you lose flexibility.

Between the TV networks, tracks and NASCAR, more give and take when it comes to start times needs to take place in order to set tracks like Michigan up for success.

See also
Tuesday Morning Pit Box: Playoff Deadline Molds Pit Strategy at Michigan

3. Brewing Chemistry Problems for Ford Teams?

At the end of the day, you need one key element to help your chances of winning at restrictor-plate tracks. That would be teamwork.

That’s likely going to be top of mind heading to this weekend’s next-to-last regular season race at Daytona International Speedway. The better a manufacturer’s cars work in cohesion, the better odds are of winning and snagging a postseason spot for drivers below the cut line.

If there’s discord within, it’s bound to get magnified. That’s why a bit of social media activity on Monday could be of note. After Chris Buescher took on damage during a lap 117 incident, the team’s social media feeds appeared to take issue with a lack of effort by Front Row Motorsports driver Todd Gilliland to slow down.

Buescher recovered to finish sixth, but the Prosper, Texas, driver noted that the damage did hurt his chances to win.

If there are actual ill feelings among the Ford drivers, they need to be flushed quickly. It could end up costing someone a spot in the postseason.

4. Is Saturday’s 400-Miler Even More of an Afterthought?

Much has been said here and by others bemoaning the fact that NASCAR is not racing on July 4th weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

But a concession to having the speedway’s summer race moved to the end of August was that it set up a winner-take-all potential as the finale of the regular season.

Due to how this year’s schedule shakes out, that’s not the case, as Darlington Raceway wraps up the regular season. Yes, Saturday’s winner could clinch a postseason spot amid the track’s unpredictability, but there is no sense of urgency. Previously, if you didn’t get that last-ditch win at Daytona, your postseason hopes were gone. Now, not so much.

See also
Kyle Busch Finally Back in Top 5 With 2-Tire Pit Call at Michigan

Hopefully, next year’s schedule moves Daytona back to the regular-season finale. That’s desperately needed, as this summer event is fast on the track to being more of just another stop on the racing calendar and not one of the more special weekends of the season.

5. Did Tyler Reddick Just Steal an Upper-Hand to a Regular-Season Title?

You don’t want to say one race out of the first 26 is bigger than another. After all, since all it takes is one race win (usually) to clinch a postseason spot, the rest of what a driver does in the regular season is icing on the cake.

But if there is a group of regular-season races that carry a bit more weight, then it’s the current window on the schedule. If you want an advantage when the NASCAR Playoffs begin, the best way is to be the regular-season champion. Tyler Reddick has that inside track after Monday’s win that also moved him 10 points in front of Chase Elliott for the points lead.

Of course, winning a title in the regular season hardly adds up to raising the trophy in November, but it’s the best way to give yourself an advantage. And with Reddick’s only finishes outside the top five in the last seven races being two finishes of sixth, the No. 45 team may be hitting its stride at just the right time.

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Brad joined Frontstretch.com in 2020 and contributes to the site's 5 Points To Ponder column and other roles as needed. A graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has covered sports in some capacity for more than 20 years with coverage including local high school sports, college athletics and minor league hockey. Brad has received multiple awards for his work from the Georgia Press Association.

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6 Comments
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Christopher Lowe

If NASCAR wasn’t running the playoffs you could honestly say that Reddick, Chase, Bell, and Hamlin are the title contenders. Outside of them four it’s Larson, Truex, and Brad.

RCFX1

#1. What is his record at either Daytona or Darlington.
#2. Races should start at 1pm local time unless there’s a special night race event.

Brian

Kyle Busch would not be deemed of “stealing a playoff spot” per se, that team at many races this season has run in the top 10 – 15 but has had bad luck, team errors (mistakes), driver errors and such during these better run races.
Guessing if one would put up an anonymous list of top average running positions the 8 car would be in the 10 – 15 range in the list. Really hope he does not make it though.

Jeremy

Bubbles or Kryle. Tough choice who to root against more. lol

Last edited 5 months ago by Jeremy
Bill B

For me it’s Spamlin.

Jeremy

Think I agree. I’d cheer for Bubbles and Kryle before I would Spamlin.