NASCAR: Kyle is the pile driver in Chase

Kyle Busch was starting to wear a little thin, so maybe he got the comeuppance he deserved by not qualifying for The Chase.

Maybe it was noteworthy that he missed by only eight points, that he came so tantalizingly close, because he acted this season as though victory was his divine right. It might have been easy to feel a little empathy for him if the most dangerous man in the Chase hadn’t been so darn arrogant.

There is a fine line between arrogance and confidence. Maybe Busch ought to study Juan Pablo Montoya to get a feel for how it’s done.

You don’t have to apologize for everything that happens, you just don’t have to be jerk about it. And when it’s your fault, fess up like a man rather than diverting blame like a teenager making excuses.

Granted, Busch is young but this is the career he has chosen. He is ridiculously talented and, frankly, good enough that he should be one of the 10 drivers in the Chase as it arrives in Fontana for the first time this weekend.

Busch would have made the Chase interesting as a contender. However, he might make it more interesting as  an outsider over these final seven races.

Do you think Busch cares who wins the championship? He probably — and I mean “probably” — has a blood interest in seeing brother Kurt Busch win, but Kyle has yet to show he’s not so mature that Kurt may be the one guy Kyle doesn’t want to win: Kurt already has one Cup championship, and another would put him two-up on Kyle.

Busch would likely draw the wrath of the Joe Gibbs orgranization if he prevented teammmate Denny Hamlin from winning the championship. But you know what they say in Formula One, your primary competition is your teammate, and Kyle Busch has F1 written all over him.

But apart from Kurt Busch (fifth place, 91 points behind Mark Martin) and Hamlin (sixth, minus-99), it’s difficult to imagine Kyle getting too bothered if he gets in the way of Jeff Gordon’s fifth title, Johnson’s fourth or Tony Stewart’s third.

Butting in the way of Montoya isn’t going to make Busch lose any sleep, although if he does anything to Martin there will be hell to pay like he has never seen from fans. It’s always good publicity to help your elders when they really are your elders, but are we really sure Busch ever bought into that?

One thing is certain. The tempestuous Kyle Busch will, before it’s over, have a say in who wins the championship. All he has to do is race for wins, and if he knocks a Chaser out of contention, who’s going to argue with a guy who’s racing for victories; it is, after all, racing. In that argument, Busch holds the trump card.

Busch doesn’t give a rip about 11th place. He doesn’t have to worry about the championship, or who wins the championship. All he has to worry about is finishing first over the next seven races.

We do know he is going to be running with the leaders because his team is that good.

All he has to do is go for broke like he does every week and let everyone else worry about collateral damage. That’s why he’s the most dangerous man in the Chase.

That’s why he may be the man to beat down the stretch. Or the man to avoid.

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