The 2015 Chase for the Sprint Cup field is solidifying fast, with only six spots remaining for those drivers who haven’t notched a win, and only six weeks left for them to do so.
As winless drivers struggle for a victory to secure a spot in the Chase, Kyle Busch’s comeback creep to the Top 30 continues. What seemed like a long shot at best nine races ago has now become a seemingly inevitable prospect.
Upon return to Cup competition, Busch’s underdog status could have almost been consigned to irrelevancy. Heading into Sonoma, Busch was winless and 173 points behind 30th place in the standings, the cutoff for Chase-eligible drivers with wins. To address that issue, he snagged a win at Sonoma (and then three more) all while slashing any “insurmountable” points gap to 30th.
In just five races, a gap of 173 points shrank to 23 points, and now Busch has six races to dissolve that number. Considering the gap isn’t between top-tier drivers in the standings, but rather 30th and 32nd, to miss the cut would require a meltdown on an even more epic scale than his quick rise to dominance.
While Kyle Busch may seem like a figurative “lucky dog” on the outside looking in, trying to claw his way back to the heart of the competition, it seems unfitting and even inappropriate to use the word “luck” in the same sentence as his name. He has won four of the last five races, including the last three in a row, a feat not seen since Jimmie Johnson won Martinsville, Atlanta and Texas in 2007.
Sitting at the bottom of the group of Chase clinchers is Carl Edwards, with just 519 points. He more fittingly wears the title of “lucky dog” rolling into the Chase with just one crucial win to fall back on.
The other drivers with wins, aside from Kyle Busch, have points enough to keep them in the Chase even if wins were not a factor. Take away the “win and you’re in” rule, and Carl Edwards sits at 16th place in the points standings instead of 10th, with Aric Almirola trailing him by just 11 points.
Edwards’ points troubles are, however, not indicative of his on-track performance. He has led 242 laps this year, the ninth-most of any driver. His two DNFs, along with only two top fives and four top 10s, help to better explain his standings in the points. Of the current Chase field, only Paul Menard has as few top 10s as Edwards, yet Menard still sits 39 points ahead of the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Toyota.
While the win incentive provides for more late summer drama and driver pressure, it is always interesting to look at points alone to determine which drivers have shown consistency throughout the season.
Come Richmond, Edwards may be thanking his lucky stars that one of the 25 laps he led in the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte was the final one.
