HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Kyle Busch winning the Sprint Cup championship has reignited the debate over whether a driver should be allowed to miss 11 races because of injury and still remain eligible for the series title.
NASCAR granted a waiver for Busch to miss races but required him to get into the top 30 in points and win a race by the time the regular season ended in order to make the Chase.
Busch did well more than that; he ended up winning four races and easily made the top 30 to earn a spot.
NASCAR created the waiver system a couple years ago to allow drivers to miss races for injuries and other extenuating circumstances.
For many, it's a philosophical debate. And fans haven't been shy weighing in on social media.
In response, Jimmie Johnson came to Busch's defense.
I disagree, he won 4 races and came back from a massive injury. https://t.co/2B83OxKQWF
— Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) November 23, 2015For Busch's wife, Samantha, it's personal, and she has little patience for those who think her husband didn't deserve the title he won Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway -- a championship that came nine months and one day after Busch's accident at Daytona International Speedway, where he broke his right leg and left foot.
Doctors said only if everything went perfectly as far as his recovery and rehab could he return in three months -- and he did.
"Not only did he [come back] with such determination and passion, but he came back so much earlier than anybody expected," Samantha Busch said Monday. "That's why I get really fired up, because I sat there with him. I sat there and handed him his [resistance] bands and bent his toes and did rehab with him.
"I was there the first time he tried to stand up and he fell right back down and he was dizzy and light-headed and he didn't know he could do it. Two minutes later, he got back up and within a week he was taking a few steps."
Samantha, speaking after the awards banquet for the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series where Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Erik Jones celebrated the truck championship, noted the waiver has been awarded to other drivers, including Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson and Busch's brother, Kurt.
"It's not like something that was invented for Kyle and this injury, so that's the first thing that gets me a little emotional," Samantha said. "But secondly, I think people just think, 'Oh, he got to take 11 weeks off and so he's more refreshed than other drivers.'
"Absolutely wrong. ... It was not a walk in the park for him. It was not a vacation. It was probably the hardest thing he has ever done in his life."