High-drag race package was drag at Indy

Let’s get the essential preliminaries out of the way first. Kyle Busch dominated at the Brickyard. He swept the weekend with a last-lap pass that beat Ryan Blaney and gave him the XFINITY Series victory in the Lilly Diabetes 250, then raised the restart to an art form over the closing laps as he won the Jeff Kyle 400.
Busch has four wins in the last five weeks and became the first driver to win three straight races since Jimmie Johnson did it in 2007 on the way to his second of six Sprint Cup titles.
But after the essential, well-deserved platitudes for Busch – who may bust my previous prediction of making the top 30 in points by Bristol on Aug. 22 a lot sooner now – there was a deeper issue for those who raced and those who watched.
The new high-drag race package for Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a drag on the joy and the emotion of what’s supposed to be the second-most popular race of the Sprint Cup season.
Look no further than the closing laps for the best case why. Despite the field’s best efforts, no one could complete a pass on anyone who was in the lead. A total of six drivers led at Indianapolis on Sunday.
The more clean air the driver had, the better the car behaved. Less clean air, the only real passing zones were at the exits of the corners. It’s back to the drawing board – not only for the tech geeks in NASCAR, but for the non-fans of the driver of the No. 18.
Busch is a Rembrandt when it comes to restarts. When the win was on the line, he proved it to perfection Sunday. But if you read the Facebook posts from various pages discussing his win, the respect is nowhere close to being there, not even in begrudging form.
“NASCAR handed him another one,” cried one poster.
“NASCAR will make sure he gets (in the Chase), one way or another,” howled a second.
And there’s this gem that’s so ridiculous, you can’t help but laugh.
“Anybody who says Kyle Busch is doing a good job is in denial. He's getting a lot of help from NASCAR, that's why nobody's coming to the races.”
The stands looked pretty empty at Indy, but suffering a broken leg and fractured bone in a foot and trying to heal from it as fast as possible doesn’t matter, I guess.
It certainly does to Busch. Through all the pain, all the physical therapy, all the weeks watching David Ragan run as the relief driver of the M&Ms Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, getting back to doing what he loved was all that mattered.
News flash: Busch returned to the 18 in the space of exactly three months. He raced in the All-Star Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway, then raced for points for the first time in Cup in 2015 at the Coca-Cola 600.
To borrow a line from one Sprint Cup sponsor, that’s freaky fast. Even freaky faster, Busch was in Victory Lane at Sonoma just five races later.
And the momentum hasn’t stopped.
Bottom line here: Even with this seriously on-fire streak, Busch is still not in the top 30 in points. Bad news for those who’d rather not be a fan of the 18: All of the winning is cutting up the deficit like a machete through a tire. With six races still to run before the Chase, Busch is only 23 points behind Justin Allgaier, who sits in the cutoff spot.
And like it or not, Busch will make the top 30 and could very easily do it after this weekend’s race at Pocono.
I am not a fan of particular drivers, but I am a fan of a good story. Busch’s run of success is one of the best stories we’ve seen in NASCAR in a long, long time.
It’s time for those who choose to hate to embrace and respect what we’re seeing or find something else to spend the emotion on.

Tom Zulewski is passionate about auto racing and welcomes new followers and comments on Twitter @Tomzsports.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Pocono Raceway (2.5-mile tri-oval), Long Pond, Pa.

SPRINT CUP: Windows 10 400, Sunday, 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 400 miles, 160 laps.

2014 champion: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Pocono Mountains 150, Saturday, 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 150 miles, 60 laps

2014 champion: Austin Dillon

XFINITY SERIES: US Cellular 250 presented by New Holland, Iowa Speedway (.875-mile oval), Newton, Iowa, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 250 laps, 218.75 miles

2014 champion: Brad Keselowski.