200 Versus 200
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So,
hot topic, right? As Kyle Busch approaches his 200th win across NASCAR's
top three national series, the talk is heating up about where it puts him among
the greatest drivers in the history of the sport. While most agree that
this will solidify and quantify Busch's eventual entrance in the NASCAR's Hall
of Fame, a lot of the agreements end there, and then becomes a spiteful battle
of words among those who are fans of Busch, those who are not, and those
somewhere in the middle.
In
July of 2011, Busch won the New England 200 at New Hampshire Motor
Speedway. It was his 100th win across the three series. "It's
pretty cool," Busch stated in the post-race presser. "We're
halfway to my number. I always said it's 200. You set your goals
high and you try to get out there and do it. It's off on the horizon,
it's a high goal, but hopefully we'll get to 200."
200.
This is an interesting number for a goal for wins. That's a number of
wins held by NASCAR's King, Richard Petty. Now, here is where the
conversation usually differs and often turns ugly between race fans who engage
in a dialog over the subject.
Busch's
wins are as previously stated, across NASCAR's Gander Outdoor Truck Series, the
NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, while all of
Petty's 200 wins are in the Cup Series, the most elite of the three.
There is the first bone of contention by Busch's detractors.
Many
non-supporters of Busch's efforts claim that most of his victories are across
two lower series, and are often shorter distances of 150 to 300 miles or laps
instead of the standard 400-500 for the Cup wins. Additionally, Busch
often races two to three times per week across all three of the levels, and his
supporters believe he should still be in the conversation because back in
Petty's prime, NASCAR often raced its top echelon multiple times per week, and
the race distances were not the 400-500 mile or lap distances we're now
familiar with on Sundays, but shorter races similar to Kyle Busch's Friday and
Saturday events.
The
true tale of the tape is that you have two different drivers with two different
styles in two different eras. We might as well be comparing diamonds to
moon rocks. But NASCAR fans have always been about the numbers. How
can we not be? Our sport is surrounded by them, from the length of a race
to the door panels of the cars. That stated, can we find a middle
ground? With rabid NASCAR fans whose minds you will never change, it is
doubtful. But, consider the following:
Richard
Petty has 200 Cup Series Wins. He also has a win in the old Convertible
Series at Columbia Speedway in 1959. That equals 201 across top divisions
if the math is correct.
Kyle
Busch has 53 Truck Series wins, 93 Xfinity Series wins, and 51 Cup Series
Wins. That's 197 wins across the top divisions, again, if the math is
correct.
Maybe
Busch's target should shift to 202.
No
one will ever, ever score 200 Cup Series wins again. Not unless we start
running 55 races per year again like we did in the 1960s, and then, it probably
still will not happen. The competition level is too high now.
It
is doubtful that any one will ever score 197 wins across the top three series
again, mainly for the same reasons, but additionally because NASCAR made the
rule limiting the number of lower tier races that a Cup Series driver can
enter. If that were not the case, Busch most likely would have surpassed
the number 200 long before this, and we would be talking about something else.
Earlier
this year, Autoweek ran an article saying that Petty is not losing any sleep
over Busch's goal of 200 wins, nor should he. In fact, both drivers have
agreed that Busch achieving 200 wins would not be the same as Petty's final
tally. If they agree on it, why can't the fans?
Richard
Petty will be the all-time Cup Series win leader with a nice round 200.
Kyle Busch, barring some sort of unforeseen change or incident, will be the
all-time Top-Three Series win leader with a number over 201. Now he says
he's going for 250, and hoping to chase down the records of Jeff Gordon with 93
Cup wins, and maybe David Pearson with 105.
“Nobody
will ever touch 200,” Busch said.