Wheel2Wheel: Reutimann's Actions Understandable, But Not Fair

Do I understand why David Reutimann felt it necessary to repay Kyle Busch at Kansas?

Certainly.

Reutimann, still battling for respect in NASCAR despite two wins with a team still fighting to be a Chase contender, can't afford take finishes in the doldrums of the running order just because another driver lacked a bit of patience.

I understand his explanation that his No. 00 team didn't have the option of when Kyle Busch was going to wreck. I get that Reutimann -- at Kansas, a track nearly identical to the site of his last win in Chicago -- had a car under him and was looking for a prosperous day.

That's all fine. That's all dandy.

Until the tables are turned.

Odds are, with the ascent of the Michael Waltrip Racing operation since its ugly, disappointing multi-car inception in 2007, that Reutimann and teammate Martin Truex Jr. will at some point over the next few seasons be competitors for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

MWR is an operation that has shown improvement and one with plenty of manufacturer backing. Sponsorship for next season seems to be a lock on both cars -- something that not many Sprint Cup organizations can boast.

When they get to that point, the same point Kyle Busch is at right now in the Chase, the pressure level reaches near the boiling point. Ten races are all that stand between a driver and raising a championship trophy, or at the very least making an impressive run at it.

But that 10-race stretch is a short-enough period of time where an incident -- even one that takes a driver from what looked to be a sure-fire top-10 to a 21st-place run like Busch -- can make all the difference in the world in terms of a championship.

With a strong finish, Busch would have been looking like a very real championship contender with 30 percent of the Chase races complete. Instead, he dropped four spots in the driver standings and trails six other drivers, 80 points from Jimmie Johnson's lead.

That's a tough blow to take after it took 26 races of effort from the No. 18 camp to even qualify for the Chase.

There's no way to predict what will happen now in the Chase. Jimmie Johnson could blow an engine at California that somehow wipes out the remaining drivers between him and Kyle Busch, while Busch goes on to win. Or Busch could blow an engine himself and all but take himself from any sort of Chase contention.

Regardless, what happened at Kansas probably shouldn't have happened.

Busch shouldn't have run out of patience when he was following Reutimann, and Reutimann should have chosen his payback a little more carefully. If nothing else, he should have considered the weight of importance of his move.

There is one way I could understand and better sympathize with Reutimann's reaction to push Busch in to the outside wall. If Reutimann could fully recognize that should he be put in an identical situation as Busch -- championship contender who wrecks someone else -- and expect retaliation, I'd be more OK with his Kansas actions.

But that's not a line that Reutimann discussed, or one that he has crossed previously in the Sprint Cup Series. To put Reutimann -- never before a NASCAR champion -- in the same situation as Busch and expect him to just take the retaliation with a grin would be a tall, tall order.