NASCAR received universal praise for how it honored Kyle Busch in the days following his tragic passing. While the sport is expected to pay its respects to the all-time great even more in the weeks to come, one piece of action taken is drawing criticism.
On Monday night’s episode of The Teardown, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic offered his critique of NASCAR’s decision to remove Busch from the Cup Series standings.
“I really don’t like it. Historically, how is that going to look? At the end of the year, is the name and the record just not there? To me that’s odd…I just don’t like that. What happened was tragic and it’s awful, but he still raced…You can’t take that away.”
Jordan Bianchi on NASCAR removing Kyle Busch from the standings
NASCAR announced ahead of this past weekend’s Cracker Barrel 400 that Busch would be removed from the Cup Series standings following his passing. The decision drew mixed feedback, with some viewing it as taking away from what Busch did in his final season.
Advertisement
As Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports noted, the decision by NASCAR was made following conversations with Richard Childress Racing. Both sides felt it was a way to make things a bit easier on those who would be hurt seeing his name still in the standings.
“NASCAR has removed Kyle Busch from its point standings, a decision made following conversations with RCR about how to handle Busch’s death and being empathetic of the impact to those who would see his name in the standings.”
Bob Pockrass on NASCAR’s decision to remove Kyle Busch from the standings
The argument in favor of removing Busch’s name from the points leaders is simple. He would’ve kept falling as the rest of the season unfolded, likely ending the year in the bottom three among full-time drivers.
To the point that this is effectively altering the documented history of the 2026 NASCAR season in some way, Busch is still listed as the pole winner for the Daytona 500 and his top finishes this year are still recorded by NASCAR.com. The only thing being taken away is his name on the standings page.
Ultimately, it seems like this is something that RCR wanted and NASCAR was more than willing to support. While it will feel odd to not see Busch’s name in the standings, RCR and NASCAR obviously felt that is better than the sadness fans would feel if his name was left there and kept falling each week.
Advertisement
Related Headlines
