Race Weekend Central

Sorry, Rowdy Fans: Still No Timetable for Kyle Busch’s Return

Fans of Kyle Busch are going to have to wait a bit longer to see him race.

Busch, 30, has been out indefinitely following a severe crash in the February Xfinity Series race at Daytona that left him with broken bones in each leg.

As reported on Motorsport.com, Busch tested a late model last week, and is expected to test again this weekend at Hickory Motor Speedway. The news fueled speculation that he would return to racing sooner than later, including rumors that he would run the CARS Tour race at Hickory this weekend.

Unfortunately for his fans, those rumors are false.

Busch used Twitter earlier this morning to confirm that he won’t be racing this weekend. In fact, he won’t return to racing until he’s back in the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing.

There is no timetable for Busch’s return. However, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France has said that the sanctioning body would “more likely than not” grant Busch a waiver to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup if he can win a race and make the top 30 in points upon his return.

Busch has won at least one race in every season since his rookie year in 2005, including an eight-win 2008 campaign. He most recently won at Fontana on March 23, 2014.

About the author

A graduate of Ball State, Aaron rejoins Frontstretch for his second season in 2016 following a successful year that included covering seven races and starting the popular "Two-Headed Monster" column in 2015. Now in his third year of covering motorsports, Aaron serves as an Assistant Editor for Frontstretch while also contributing to other popular sites including Speed51 and The Apex. He encourages you to come say hi when you see him at the track.

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Fred Madden

Winning a race and being in the top 30 in points is what is required to make the Chase (assuming that you still rank in the top 16 of drivers that have also done this, as of this year). So does this article contain a “typo”/misquote or what?

Basically, this article states that NASCAR/Brian France will “most likely” let Kyle into the Chase if he wins a race and also be in the top 30 in points. Uhh, that is the rules to make the Chase, no where does it state that you need to run every race. So if Kyle pulled that off, he definitely would be in the Chase.

So that leads me to believe that this article isn’t accurate and that maybe Kyle won’t need to be in the top 30 in points if he gets a Win to make the Chase. I haven’t run the numbers, but I imagine it would be tough as hell to get into the top 30 before the Chase started. Which seems to me that this article should state that if Kyle wins a race, the being in the top 30 portion of the rules might get waived? And is that the real point to Chase part of this story?

Does anyone have an answer to this?

JohnQ

I truly doubt there is an answer. NASCAR rules, if one could call them that, have always been fluid. What happens will be what has historically happened. A France will make a decision based on the whim of the moment. This is what we get with no real sanctioning body.

Fred Madden

JohnQ, first of all, I can’t believe how bad of a website this is (even after years of using it). My job is a systems engineer, so I know what it takes to run a website and forum. My point being, that I was amazed that no one, especially Aaron Bearden, didn’t respond to my post.

But to top that off, it took me having to refresh the original article just to see your reply. (1990’s coding here.) While I like the Frontstretch.com, I am amazed at how poor their Internet presence is. I wouldn’t have seen your reply unless, like I did, did a manual refresh of this article… basically, because I found it hard to believe that no one replied to me.

So, there is a damn good chance that you won’t see this reply either.

Anyways… yeah, I totally agree with you. I, honestly, stopped watching NASCAR about 3-4 years ago, unless I just happen to have nothing else to do and also happen to be in front of TV screen. But being a fan for 25+ years before that has caused me to still follow everything else.

And yes, whatever the dilemma seems to be, it does appear that a “France” will make the decision based on whatever they deem best to make them money. I’ve seen this abuse too many times to believe that it isn’t true. Hence the reason I’ve stopped watching races and in another few years, won’t even know the drivers, so I won’t even bother finding out who won or not.

But besides all that, I still like articles I read about NASCAR to make sense… which this one doesn’t. Which is why I questioned this article to begin with. LOL

Beth Lunkenheimer

Hey guys! Sorry for the delay in response. The reason there is question about whether Kyle Busch will be eligible to race in the Chase is that an additional requirement of being in the Chase is to also have started, or at least qualified for, every race on the schedule also. That’s what brings up the question about a waiver to get into the Chase.

As to whether he can race his way into the top 30 before the Chase cutoff, that’s debatable depending on when he actually returns. He would have to run nearly perfect in the remaining races leading up to Richmond to have a shot at making the top 30. But don’t worry… television will make sure everyone knows where he stands when the time comes.

Fred Madden

Thanks for the clarification.

The “rules” that I read didn’t say anything about “starting or at least qualified for every race”. It would seem, IMO, that being in the top 30 in points would pretty much mandate that a driver pretty much attempted to do this, because missing only a couple races makes it hard to be in the top 30.

So I see this as another ridiculous rule that NA$CAR has. Honestly, if out of the first 26 races, a driver wants to miss a race to go race the Indy 500 (probably the reason for the rule) or such, who really cares?

Then again, I find a format in which you can win the first 35 races of the year, and then come in 2nd in the final race and not be the Champion, a completely ridiculous format.

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