There’s one way to fix the issue Kyle Busch had Sunday at Las Vegas– shrink the field for races. Even 40 is too much for races, what’s the issue with shrinking it to even 32??

If you hadn’t seen– Kyle Busch wrecked his car when he ran into Garrett Smithley’s bumper during Stage 3 of Sunday’s Cup race. Honestly, you can debate if Kyle should have gone high or low, but the point is that they knew he was running the middle line and Smithley’s spotter assured the 18 team they would move to let him go…and it didn’t happen. I’ll say that I don’t care if Kyle had space high or low– lead-lap cars have preference of line over lapped cars, especially ones like Smithley– WHO BASICALLY STOPPED TO A HALT IN ONE AND TWO— in which Kyle ran into him, ruining his run from two-laps down and possibly salvaging a good finish despite early blunders. After the race, Kyle said some things and here we are.

Now, don’t get it twisted– I dislike Kyle Busch. He has talent, but he’s not my cup of tea thinking that he’s owed anything from everyone. That said, Smithley shouldn’t have been in a spot where he’s in the prime racing line for a lead-lap car. While I enjoyed the Honest Abe Roofing scheme, the fact he was out there just cruising around is indicative of the state of NASCAR in that they don’t care your talent level, you have the money to race– we’ll let you race– shoutout Gray Gaulding and BK Racing.

So what’s the big issues with shrinking the field maximum from 40 to 32?? This way, you actually have some kind of competition for qualifying, you can weed out the teams who are running the Cup series just for the extra money it brings into their pockets because the monetary system in the Xfinity Series is broken (as is the Cup drivers running in those races, but that’s another post for another time), and you can also not have also-rans out there getting in the way of playoff contenders and ruining their day because they didn’t understand what was being said on the radio or just ignoring their spotters altogether.

Plus, this will also make teams more competitive and actually try to make the race rather than falling back on the fact there hasn’t been many maximum entry races and the charter system– which in and of itself is a farce. All these smaller teams that are serious about improving– like Rick Ware Racing– will actually have to improve if they want to make the field rather than just getting because of no one else being around.

Smithley said he was running his line and what-have-you, which is true; but when you’re that far down that late in the race, some kind of decorum is needed for guys who are actually racing for something more than seat time in a Cup car and a bigger paycheck.