THE massive divide between NASCAR’s heavyweights and the underdog teams just scraping by received renewed attention following Kyle Busch’s damning assessment of how backmarkers raced in the playoff opener over the weekend.

Busch rallied from an early incident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that dropped him two laps off the pace to stunningly position himself for a top-five finish. Instead, he ran into the back of Garrett Smithley, who was 12 laps down in 35th place.