CLEVELAND, Ohio — Despite missing 11 races to start the season due to a broken leg, Kyle Busch continues an improbable run to The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup as he now has three victories, including Sunday at New Hampshire, his third win in the last four events.
Busch sits 33rd in the series standings, 56 points from 30th, which would qualify him for the 10-race Chase to the championship at the end of the season. NASCAR has said that due to his injury Busch does not have to meet the requirement of starting every race to qualify for The Chase. But he does have to finish in the top 30 among the points leaders.
Minus a catastrophe over the next several weeks, that looks to be a done deal.
The NASCAR number crunchers predict Busch has to have average finishes of 19th over the final seven races. Since his return, Busch’s average race finish has been 15th. The next race is The Brickyard at Indianapolis and in 10 career starts at Indy, Busch has recorded eight top 10 finishes.
One driver who needs to make a move in the standings is Jeff Gordon, currently sitting 10th. Gordon, who will retire at the end of the season, is one of only two drivers in the Top 10 who has not won a race this season. However, if he is going to get a checkered flag at all in 2015, it will probably come at The Brickyard.
He has five victories and 12 top five finishes in 21 career starts at Indianapolis. He has failed to finish just one race at The Brickyard.
At the top of the points race, with a pair of wins and 17 top 10 finishes, Kevin Harvick holds less than a 100-point lead over Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson. Of the four drivers, the one to watch at Indy is Earnhardt Jr., considering The Brickyard has not been kind to him. In 15 starts there, Red Beard has never won and only finished in the top five once at the 2.5-mile oval.
Silly season: This is considered the ‘silly season’ in auto racing, where wild rumors bubble up about almost everything from drivers changing teams and crew chiefs about to change teams for next season, down to sponsorship changes among teams and drivers as well.
With Danica Patrick definitely needing a sponsor for next season, and possibly having an open ear for changing teams, one would think it would be a boiling pot of speculation around her right now. But so far that is not the case. All is relatively quiet. But stay tuned.
