May 4, 2009
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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Kyle Busch will probably never be voted NASCAR’s most popular driver, an award that has been locked up for the last six years by Dale Earnhardt Jr., but has reached a point in his career where fans either love him or hate him.
Regardless of how the fans feel about the younger of the Busch brothers, they have to respect his abilities behind the wheel of a racecar. Busch fended off Carl Edwards Friday night to win the Nationwide Series race at Richmond. He also leads Edwards by 82 points in the Nationwide standings.
“It's fun here at Richmond -- I love winning here,” Busch was quoted as saying in a Sporting News Wire Service article on nascar.com. “We're in championship form. We've just got to keep digging.”
Even though he finished a disappointing second, Carl Edwards remained optimistic about his race result.
“But it's a great race car, and even though it's second, it's still a decent points day, and it's good to be this strong here at Richmond,” he said in the same article.
The next closest competitor in the Nationwide standings is Jason Leffler at 198 points behind the leader Busch, and three of the top four in the points are full time Cup drivers. It looks as if Edwards and Busch, both Sprint Cup regulars, are going to pull away with the championship and decide it between themselves. There is no Chase for the Championship in the Nationwide Series and the points are not reset at the end of the year.
The victory at Richmond marks Busch’s third in the series already this season, which brings into question a debate that has long raged in the NASCAR garages. Should Cup drivers be allowed to compete for the Nationwide championship?
There are many who say that full time Cup drivers shouldn’t be awarded points when they compete in Nationwide races or at least should be on a different point system. On the other hand, the more established drivers such as Edwards and Busch competing in the Nationwide series lends credibility to the races and draws fans. After all, who wants to watch a race with drivers they’ve never heard of?
However, most Cup drivers that compete in Nationwide don’t run a full schedule, so they don’t accumulate enough points to be in championship contention, yet they take points away from drivers who sorely need every point, so it’s a catch-22.
Regardless of how famous a driver is, if he runs a full schedule in Nationwide, he should be able to compete for the Championship. The other less experienced drivers can either stand around and complain or drive harder and win more races. It’s as simple as that.
With the way that Kyle Busch is racing so far this season, having also won races in the Cup and Truck series, he more than likely has a chance to run away with the Nationwide Championship this year, especially if he stays in “Championship form.”
And the fact that it is Kyle Busch leading the Nationwide points only fans the flames because NASCAR fans love to hate the sometimes arrogant driver who always bows to the fans after a win, usually to a chorus of boos.
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