Kyle Busch has won at every NASCAR Cup Series racetrack.
Or has he?
NASCAR will consider the new Charlotte Motor Speedway road course as a separate track for statistical purposes. That makes sense in that NASCAR breaks down its tracks into road courses, short tracks (less than a mile), superspeedways (a mile or longer) and restrictor-plate tracks (Daytona and Talladega, where restrictor plates are used).
So if Busch doesn't win Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC), it will be considered that he hasn't won at all the tracks, even though he won the Coca-Cola 600 on the 1.5-mile CMS oval.
"I've won there. ... It's Charlotte Motor Speedway last I checked, so I have victories from Charlotte Motor Speedway," Busch said.
The NASCAR decision, while not the most important thing in the stock car world, has certainly sparked debate on social media.
For instance, when talking about a NASCAR driver's victories at Daytona, some would be willing to add a Rolex 24 sports car win to that list even if it is a different series and on the road course.
But not NASCAR. Here's what ESPN's experts have to say about it:
NASCAR is considering the Charlotte road course as a separate track from the oval for statistical purposes -- in other words, it will separate a driver's "Charlotte" stats into two categories, one for oval and one for road course. Is that the right approach?
Mike Clay, ESPN: Absolutely. No doubt about it. This isn't the same old Charlotte Motor Speedway with a slight tweak to the track; this is two different tracks that happen to overlap. The point of track splits is to be able to see how a driver has done on a specific race course. Combining the statistics of the oval and roval would lead to flawed splits, as they aren't even close to the same challenge. Much like if Cup followed the lead of the truck series and ran a race at The Dirt Track across the street, the statistics would not and should not be combined.
Ricky Craven, ESPN NASCAR analyst: None of us know the life expectancy of the roval. It is unique to NASCAR racing, and it has created a tremendous amount of curiosity among the fans and quite a bit of opposition from drivers and team owners. Regardless of how it shakes out, the roval should be recorded completely separate of the Charlotte 600 race and all other races that existed on the Charlotte Motor Speedway oval. We're talking apples and oranges here. This concept has staying power because the fans are going to embrace it, and the roval could become a trend for other tracks to incorporate toward their second date. I'm going to take it a step further -- not only do we need to record separately every statistic from this inaugural race, but I would argue we also have to create another category in terms of "type of track." We currently have short track, intermediate superspeedway and road course. Make room for the roval.
Ryan McGee, ESPN senior writer: Heck yes it is. Acting like the stats for those two layouts should be the same, even if the name over the door is the same, that's crazy. This is also not unprecedented. An IndyCar driver's stats for the early May road course race isn't lumped in with their results in the Indianapolis 500. I have no problem with a place like Darlington, which has changed its layout over the years (albeit via small moves) rolling all of those stats onto the same sheet of paper. But I do know a lot of the old-school guys, they keep "old Darlington" and "new Darlington" in separate categories. But that's just old dudes being old dudes. There are no small moves in this layout change.
Marty Smith, ESPN: It is the only approach, although this is the same sport that considers all championships -- under multiple determination equations -- equal and comparable. I agree with this decision.
Bob Pockrass, ESPN.com: It's the right move. Statistics are meant to tell a story and give insight. There is nothing similar about the two tracks. Some would argue that a track reconfiguration should then be a new track, but the natural place to make the distinction is when the distance significantly changes or they have to turn right and left. Sorry, Kyle Busch. For you to currently claim a win at every Cup track, you need to win this weekend.
Matt Willis, ESPN Stats & Information: Wait, a question about how stats are categorized? Somebody is catering to me. It's 100 percent the right approach to have separate stats, as the tracks will have little in common, despite using some of the same real estate. Eventually, hopefully we'll have a whole category for roval stats to go along with traditional ovals and road courses. They're different disciplines and deserve to recognize top performers at this unique style of racing.
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