Brian France considering Chase waiver for Stewart
The defending Sprint Cup Series champion told USA TODAY Sports that Stewart’s injury — a broken back — is a “bigger deal" compared to the broken leg and foot Busch suffered at Daytona International Speedway a year ago.
But Busch expressed some optimism for the three-time champion.
“He’s (come back from injury) once, he can do it again — he will do it again," Busch said. “And I hope when he comes back, he will be a force to be reckoned with."
The Busch and Stewart comparisons will be frequent this season because nothing like the situation had occurred in NASCAR history until 2015. Under the old points system, a driver who missed a significant portion of the season would have no chance at making the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff.
But due to the medical waiver rule — and NASCAR’s interpretation of it, which allowed Busch to be playoff-eligible despite missing 11 races — there’s still hope for Stewart in his final season.
Depending on when Stewart returns, he could receive a medical waiver, win a race and race his way into the top 30 in points. That would put him in the Chase.
The difference between the two drivers, however, is how well they'd been running before the injuries.
In the year before he got hurt, Busch had an average finish of 17.6 and finished 10th in the standings. Last year, Stewart had an average finish of 24.8 and finished 28th in the standings.
“In my situation, I don’t feel like I’d struggled as bad as Tony has the last couple of years," Busch said. “So Tony was definitely going to need part of the season to get used to working with a new crew chief and getting his program rebuilt, and now he doesn’t have that time.
“So when he comes back, he’d better be ready to go and the team had better be ready to go. I feel like when I missed the races I missed, it made (crew chief) Adam (Stevens) better and it made the team better because they knew they had to be better with the drivers they had." Jeff Gluck/USA Today
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| The real question is whether Stewart is good enough anymore to make the Chase if he wasn't injured. |
02/13/16 With Tony Stewart sidelined for an indefinite number of races with an injured back, does the three-time Sprint Cup Series champion still have a chance to make NASCAR's Chase in his final season?
NASCAR rules state that a driver must compete in all 26 points-paying regular-season races and be in the top 30 in points to be in the running for one of the 16 playoff slots. The sanctioning body has a history of lifting the perfect attendance requirement, however, in cases where a driver has been out due to injury or another health-related issue. Such an exception — formally known as a waiver — was most recently handed down last season when Kyle Busch missed the first 11 Sprint Cup points races after suffering extensive leg and foot injuries in the XFINITY Series opener at Daytona.
Busch ultimately made the Chase by virtue of winning multiple races and climbing into the top 30 in points before the end of the regular season. He also went on to win the championship. Stewart, who is set to retire at season's end, could theoretically make a championship run of his own if NASCAR doesn't require him to enter all 26 regular-season races to be Chase-eligible.
While nothing is official, it sounds as though Stewart is likely to receive the same kind of waiver that Busch did, provided he returns to his #14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevy before missing too many races.
"I think we're going to treat that just as we did Kyle Busch," NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France said Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio with host Dave Moody. "There obviously is a balance … you can't come in the race before the Chase starts and win that race and expect to cruise on in for the final 10 races. So there's some balance, but this is the beauty of the Chase. We have that ability to make some medical and other important exceptions for things like this. But you still have to compete at a high level over a number of events. We will cross that bridge when we can. I hope for his sake, just like I was hoping for Kyle's, that will be sooner rather than later. And the sooner the better in terms of making a decision on our end."
France noted that Stewart's accident wasn't a result of any kind of carelessness on his part, which likely makes him a candidate for a waiver. FoxSports