Head2Head: A Chase provisional to wins leader?

Let's talk scenarios. Let's say, by chance, that Kyle Busch backs up his Watkins Glen victory from a year ago with another win on the road course in August. That gives him four.

Busch also wins at Atlanta, but crashes at Bristol early on and blows an engine at Richmond. That Saturday night at Richmond, Mark Martin finishes the regular season with four wins and is in the Chase. Busch finishes with five wins, but is outside the 12-driver cutoff.

It all presents the scenario that the Cup Series wins leader misses the Chase and cannot compete for the championship.

We're not sheep. The Cup is won on consistency, not individual race victories. But in no other major league sport would the winningest participant or team be held out of the playoffs. The Colts go 14-2 and miss? The Lakers win 60 games but watch from home? The Cubs win the Central but don't play again?

It's impossible. And it should be impossible for a series-leading race winner to be kept out of the title hunt.

The probability of such happening is slim; I began this argument by saying let's talk scenarios. But as we've seen before in NASCAR, just when we think a scenario won't pop up, it does. The Chase was created for more year-end excitement and bonus points were added for regular-season victories. Yet only once since 2004 has the wins leader also won the title. But at least they were eligible.

First there were 10. Now there are 12. Do we really need to make it 13 or more?

The Chase was created to give the top drivers of the season a playoff format for the final 10 races. It's supposed to be the best-of-the-best, the elite 12 drivers of the season battling for the championship -- it's not open for an invitation.

This hasn't been an issue since its inception in 2004 and the only reason it's being bantered about now is Mark Martin or Kyle Busch could find themselves in that very situation. But the thing is, if you have the most wins on the season and you don't make the Chase -- you don't belong there.

In the five years of Chase racing, only once has a driver with multiple wins failed to make the postseason -- Kasey Kahne in 2008. Five drivers made the Chase without a win and Kahne was on the outside looking in so didn't Kahne deserve to make it in front of those five?

The answer is no, because he wasn't good enough the other 34 races.

And when does this end? Now it's the wins leader but why stop there? Why not include every driver who has won a race? I'm being sarcastic but that's what the future holds when those in charge start creating "special circumstances".

Already 28 percent of the field is in the postseason which is more than enough. If the sanctioning body starts handing out free boosts it will cheapen the Cup championship.