2012 Review:
It was a season to forget for Kyle Busch, who missed his second Chase for the Sprint Cup in four years and finished 13th in the series standings.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver won only once during the campaign, the lowest total since his final year with Hendrick Motorsports in 2007.
While the season saw several downs — wrecking early at both Bristol and Martinsville toward the beginning of season, losing engines in two consecutive weeks at Dover and Pocono, hitting oil and getting turned by Brad Keselowski while leading at Watkins Glen, just to name a few — none were more excruciating than what happened during the regular-season finale at Richmond.
With Busch holding on to the final Wild Card spot for the Chase with a 13 point cushion on the nearest competitor, he seemed like a lock to make NASCAR's post-season. After all, Richmond is easily one of his best tracks.
However, a late pit strategy call went awry, and as he fell to 16th, Jeff Gordon rose to second and stole the final Wild Card spot by one single point.
His season wasn't without a few highs, of course. Aside from his win in the spring event at Richmond, he also led 1436 laps, second only to Jimmie Johnson.
Busch also ended the season on fire, finishing within the top five in six of the final seven events, including four straight to close out the year. This could be the biggest moment of his season, potentially setting him up for a hot start in 2013.
2013 Preview:
Busch and the No.18 team will have to figure out this little old thing called consistency if they're to be taken seriously as a title threat. They also need to iron out glitches that seem to plague the Las Vegas native with alarming frequency.
Whether it be wrecks, blown engines, poor pit calls, driver errors or anything else imaginable that could hurt a race car, these glitches seem to strike the No.18 at the most inopportune times — such as blown engines in the first couple of races in the Chase in 2008 or as documented above in last year's regular season finale.
The occasionally temperamental Busch will also have to continue working on controlling his emotions, an area he made strides in last season, though there's certainly room for improvement.
Simply put, Busch has the talent to win on any given racetrack on any given day. The team around him has the talent to give him equipment to make him competitive and keep him up front consistently.
They all just need to start acting like it.
2013 Prediction:
Kyle Busch is an enigma. The eye test shows he has as much talent as anyone in NASCAR. The numbers, namely his career points finishes, don't support that belief.
Even his top-five streak to end last season could be argued another way; he led so many laps without winning any of those events, it would seem he and his team did their fair share to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
To that end, it could be considered crazy to predict that this team finally gets over these issues that have followed them for the better part of five seasons and actually contend for a championship deep into Chase.
If that's the case, sign me up for the asylum.
Disregarding that he wasn't actually in it, Busch finally put together a strong Chase, scoring the second most points during that ten-race stretch.
Drivers who end the year strongly have a history if competing for the title the next year. Both Denny Hamlin's and Carl Edwards' runner-up campaigns — in 2010 and 2011 respectively — were preceded by finishing among the top point scorers in the previous year's Chase.
There's also the small matter of adding Matt Kenseth to the Joe Gibbs Racing fold in 2013. His calm demeanor and veteran leadership should pay huge dividends with both Busch and Hamlin.
So, while trusting the No.18 team is sketchy at best, they're too talented to not make a title run here soon.
The stars have aligned themselves nicely for it to be in 2013.
J-Mac's 2013 Top 12 So Far:
3. Kyle Busch
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Jimmie Johnson
6. Clint Bowyer
7. Jeff Gordon
8. Tony Stewart
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
11. Greg Biffle
12. Carl Edwards
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