Getty ImagesIn NASCAR, there are two seasons. The "regular season" and the Chase.
That is the danger of this 12-driver, 10-race process that determines the NASCAR Sprint Cup champion. Busch threw away his 80 bonus points in one day and with a 34th-place finish following a miserable drive that included spin outs, a broken Heim Joint and other maladies, Busch is now 74 points out of the lead with nine races remaining.
While there is plenty of time left in NASCAR's Chase for Busch to pedal his way back to the front, once again it shows just how meaningless the 26-race exercise known as the "regular season" can be to the driver who enters the Chase atop the standings.
Jeff Gordon discovered that last year and Johnson suffered the same fate in 2004 and '05. They all had healthy leads in the standings wiped out when the Chase began and ultimately watched another driver celebrate the title. The same scenario could easily happen to Busch this year. Consider that the No. 1 seed in the Chase has won the championship just once.
That's unfortunate. How about the Chase not being so important? Something has to be fixed about the Chase.
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