Pete Pistone Auto Club Mirror – NASCAR

If possible, set aside any personal feelings you may have about Kyle Busch. The polarizing pilot has a lot of detractors, but also a legion of fans.

But forget about any emotional state of mind. There is one and only one way to look at the driver, Kyle Busch.

He's damn good.

In fact, historically. The next few days will be devoted to a more in-depth debate comparing Busch and his 200 NASCAR national series wins with the same number of wins in the playoffs. This is an impossible argument to win in various ways.

See also: Race summary and results

But no matter how you cut it or magnify the realization through the prism of your choice, it's an incredible achievement. To win so many victories at a relatively young age of 33 is something that, frankly, I can not see reproducing every time in the sport. The 200 is more than likely a plateau that will soon be left in the dust because Busch does not seem to slow down or stop so early.

His Sunday win was far from easy, as Busch was forced to come back from a speeding road infraction in the stands during the final stages. He resumed the race in 18th position, but even with a set of rules that, by his own assessment, makes the task even more difficult to pass. show "leading 134 of the 200 laps of the day.

It's fair to say that Kyle Busch will never win NASCAR's most popular driver award. But that's the only thing he will not win when his career ends.

• The report card for Sunday's implementation of the new rules package is likely to become incomplete. Criteria combining the two statistics and the "eyeball test" will be debated all week after Sunday's race, which from this turn looked like a typical Auto Club Speedway 400 miles away. The wild restarts have always been the business card of the three-kilometer track and its wide open spaces and this was again on Sunday. The cars stayed together maybe a little longer than in the past, but as the green flag flipped, things spread out as usual. I know that preaching patience is not a popular practice, but I could not see anything concrete on Sunday that would offer a takeaway in one way or another.
• There is no disagreement out of nowhere around the qualifying session of the NASCAR World Cup World Cup, a total embarrassment. None of the 12 drivers in the final run made an official lap on the board, as they all waited too long before the allotted time to get around the track in time. The new rules package and its impact on the need to be part of the project have pushed the teams to make unfortunate decisions. But rather than changing the format, NASCAR should do absolutely nothing when it will use the full Texas Aero package on the next track. Pilots and teams must adapt to what is in place rather than the sanctioning body adjusting things whenever it does not go as planned. Maybe the teams could have better understood the situation and not cut it so close. How about some locator stand teachers who update their math skills and better know how long their drivers need to leave the pit road to get into the clock? However, I'm sure the sport will bend because competitors can not follow a simple set of rules.
• Cole Custer won his first Xfinity Series win on Saturday and defeated Kyle Busch, who was looking for victory in the national 200 series. The conversation about whether or not Busch participated in the second series NASCAR is good or bad for the sport is a sport that lasts for years. Fans have their opinion, as do drivers. But in Custer's case, his victory meant even more, as he was able to beat the all-time leader in the series. "Kyle Busch is one of the legends of our sport," Custer said. "To prevent it … from getting $ 200 means a lot." I'm sure he's probably a little frustrated, but we have a lot of fun running him and hope we'll do more in the future. "
• Now that the west coast swing of this year is in the rearview mirror, it will be interesting to see how the next programs will integrate the annual course on the left coast. There is still much talk about a 2020 calendar that could find a race or (or three) in the West in late January / early February before the traditional Daytona dates unfold around President's Day weekend. . Any effort to end the previous year and get out of the mighty shadow of the NFL sooner will have to be discerning. Giving the kickoff a little earlier in the year could be one of those ideas.

The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the automobile network.