“I’m not really sure why we went back to it”: Kyle Busch isn’t convinced NASCAR’s return to chase Kyle Busch shared his thoughts on NASCAR’s return to the Chase format. He clarified how one couldn’t afford a wreck in the original Chase because it resulted in a significant deficit of points. Busch mentioned that he once finished fifth in a season after a wreck at Kansas. Since the format rewarded points accumulation, a 10-race chase may turn out to be a quick and expensive path to the title. The new updated version allows more points for a race win, which could theoretically allow a driver to recoup lost points.
Kyle Busch thinks Chase still favours NASCAR’s top teams
However, Busch clarified that only the top teams, such as Team Penske, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Hendrick Motorsports, could manage a race win regularly. In an interview with the SiriusXM NASCAR studio, Busch expressed his thoughts, saying, “I thought we got away from it for a reason in the past, so I’m not really sure why we went back to it. The reason why we sort of went away from it was obviously Jimmy Johnson’s dominance, number one. But I feel like number two is there were times where guys like myself who would have one bad race or two that would then knock them out of the championship.””You get caught up in a wreck, and boom,” Kyle Busch added, “you can’t make up enough points to get back to the championship, but you’re going to finish third in points.”During the regular season, Kyle Busch revealed that his team would plan to accumulate stage points. He also revealed that qualifying will play a pivotal role in holding on to stage points.
Kyle Busch makes a daring statement on the Chase format
Kyle Busch predicted in the same interview regarding the Chase’s performance in comparison to the current generation of drivers. The Richard Childress Racing driver believes widespread wrecks could level the playing field against his competition.”With the racing the way that it is today and everybody running over everybody all the time, you might see all 16 of us have a bad race. So you know if all of us have a bad race, that could just sort of be construed as your throwaway, and you’ve got to be good in the other nine,” he said.Kyle Busch had only two DNFs last year, but logged a winless season with just three top-5 results over 36 races. Busch would have finished two positions higher at 19th if the Chase had been the playoffs rather than the Chase, but he concluded the season in 21st place in the standings. Kyle Larson would’ve remained the champion.