In or Out: Kyle Busch and Mark Martin Created Own Fate

It is a very real possibility that four-time winners Kyle Busch and Mark Martin might not qualify for NASCAR's Chase for the Championship despite leading the Sprint Cup Series in victories.

Martin is ranked 10th with a tenuous 60-point cushion on Busch in 13th place. Busch is 34 points out of the 12-driver cutoff with two races remaining.

It would be ironic to stage a playoff without the winningest drivers of the regular season. But it would not tarnish the championship one bit.

To put it bluntly, Busch and Martin should have performed better when they weren't winning. If they miss the Chase, it will be because they simply did not score enough points.

Suggestions that NASCAR needs to alter the championship format in a way to prevent the winningest driver from missing the playoffs is insulting. The championship system cannot change to accommodate every new scenario or to manufacture a compelling storyline.

Sure, it would be great to have the talented but volatile Busch vying for the season title. And yes, it would be hugely popular to have the 50-year old Martin showing Brett Favre the real way to come out of retirement.

It would be more interesting, more entertaining and more competitive should these two drivers be factors in the championship outcome.

But if they don't make the 12-driver championship field, it just shows those teams need to improve, the sport doesn't have to change.

The driver with the most wins has won the championship only twice in the last decade. Jeff Gordon won the most races in all four of his championship seasons. If you take him out of the equation, the winningest driver has earned the title only once (Jimmie Johnson in 2007) since 1989.

Winning a race is different from claiming a season championship. It's a lot easier to be great one afternoon than it is to maintain superiority over the course of a 36-week season.

Nascar rewarded race winners two years ago when it tweaked the Chase format by resetting the Chase standings with bonuses for wins in the 26-race regular season.

That is why if Martin and Busch do make the Chase field, they could conceivably start on top of the standings - going from barely cracking the top-12 to leading the top-12.

But changing the format again to guarantee the driver with the most wins makes the Chase - no matter his ranking - is wrong.

What's next weighing the wins? Should Matt Kenseth's rain-shortened Daytona 500 win count less than Kasey Kahne holding off Tony Stewart for victory on the Sonoma, Calif road course?

Media and drivers have argued for years that a victory should pay substantially more points than second place. The race winner gets 185 points, second place earns 170. There are five bonus points available for any driver who leads one lap and five bonus points for the driver who leads the most laps.

And yet despite the extra points earned for winning races Busch and Martin are still having to prove themselves in a two-race set-up for the playoffs.

Martin, who was ranked 12th prior to last week's race at Bristol, Tenn., has 12 top-10 finishes, but also three results of 40th or worse and two more 35th or worse.

Busch, who has combined for 12 wins in NASCAR's three marquee series this season, has only eight top-10 finishes in the Cup ranks with wins accounting for half of those.

His top-10 tally is the lowest of the top 15 drivers and pales in comparison with the top-10s earned by points leader Tony Stewart (18) and second place Jimmie Johnson (16). Busch has four finishes of 30th or worse.

Is something wrong with the Chase that Busch and Martin might be relegated to season subplots? No. Something was wrong that they didn't close the deal. And both drivers will tell you just that.