Where have we heard this story before? A young driver winning anything and everything throughout the first three quarters of the season, and appears to be poised for his first championship celebration, and then all of a sudden, they encounter a sequence of misfortune, hence the fall from grace. Benefiting from the misfortune is a wily veteran who already owns two championships.

Kyle Busch was the story of the 2008 Sprint Cup season as he won eight of the season’s first 22 races. At the time, he possessed a 242-point advantage over second-place Carl Edwards. Even with the Chase for the Championship format and his lead shrinking to only 30 points, Busch was the odds-on favorite to capture his first Sprint Cup trophy. After all, only Carl Edwards had even come close to matching his performance.

However, not long after the green flag waved at Loudon, New Hampshire, the championship picture was dramatically distorted for the 23-year old driver. A broken heim joint, a bizarre mechanical malfunction caused by human neglect, relegated Busch to a 34th place finish, and he found himself 74 points out of the lead in the championship standings.

A week later at Dover, Busch was expected to rebound and insert himself back into the championship picture. Instead, his Toyota Camry fell victim to an engine failure, and Busch finished the race in the 43rd position, which of course is dead last. Now 210 points out of the lead in the championship standings, Busch no longer felt that he had a chance at the title.

“We’re out of the title hunt. That’s for sure. So we’ll just manage what we can," said the dejected driver.

Heading into to Kansas, there was still of glimmer of hope for Kyle Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing team. Busch cleaned house on the intermediate speedways throughout the regular season, and a victory at Kansas would have perhaps supplied he and his team the momentum they needed for one last championship run. Lo and behold, a fuel pump issued relegated Busch to an excruciating 28th place finish. The trio of thwarted outings left Busch 311 points behind the championship leader, and all hope seemed lost. The Sprint Cup championship was now out of reach for NASCAR’s most dominant driver.

Reaping the benefits of Busch’s late-season collapse is two-time champion Jimmie Johnson. Johnson is perhaps on his way to a third consecutive championship.

This story sounds all too familiar to the countless Bill Elliott fans that watched him cough up his first championship twenty-three years earlier. In 1985, the young driver from Dawsonville, Georgia emerged as NASCAR’s most popular driver, and he did it with a self-effacing personality and a super fast Thunderbird.

In 1985, the Sprint (Winston) Cup Series schedule only consisted of 28 races. After Elliott won the Southern 500 at Darlington, and the Winston Million, he owned a commanding 206-point lead over two-time champion Darrell Waltrip with only eight races remaining. He had won ten of the season’s first twenty races, an astonishing winning percentage of 50.0. Common perception was that no one even stood a chance to chase down Elliott.

However, many forgot that Elliott’s success had occurred primarily on the speedways, and there were three short track races and a road course race left on the schedule. Waltrip was a short track master and road course ringer, not to mention a loudmouth mind-game playing menace, which meant that he could make things interesting. Well, he did more than that.

At Richmond, Elliott finished in the twelfth position, which at the time fell into the category of mediocre. Meanwhile, Waltrip won the race and cut the championship deficit to 153-points. A week later at Dover, Waltrip scored a second place finish while Elliott saw a potential victory turn into a 20th place finish. His lead was now only 86 points.

At Martinsville, Waltrip posted his second consecutive second place finish while Elliott stammered to a 17th place finish. His lead was quickly vanishing, as Waltrip was a mere 23 points out of the lead. The more Waltrip gained on Elliott, the more the outspoken veteran used his mouth as an apparatus or a way to get into the head of the younger, and less experienced Elliott. Of course, the series was heading to his third short track in four races.

At North Wilkesboro, a broken flywheel ended Elliott’s day after 118 laps, and he finished in the 30th position. Although Waltrip did not have a spectacular day, his 14th place finish was enough to put him in the lead in the championship standings by 30 points. Suddenly, Elliott found himself on unfamiliar terrain, outside of the lead in the standings.

The next race on the agenda was at the speedway in Charlotte, which was a bread and butter track for Elliott. He finished in the second position, and gained ten points on Waltrip who finished fourth. Down the road in Rockingham, North Carolina, Waltrip won his third race of the season, while Elliott finished in the fourth position. Waltrip gained fifteen more points on Elliott, now leading the standings by 35 points. Elliott won at Atlanta, while Waltrip finished third. This set up a championship showdown for the season finale at the road course in Riverside, California. Elliott trailed Waltrip by only 20 points.

Many considered Waltrip the superior road course racer, despite the fact that Elliott won his first career race at Riverside two years earlier. It was sure to come down to the final lap. However, a malfunction in the transmission caused by an eight-dollar part sealed Elliott’s fate. The dominant driver of the 1985 season, winning 11 races and 11 poles, failed to win the championship. Instead, the veteran driver already owning two championships won the ultimate prize. Elliott’s fall from the championship lead in 1985 is often acknowledged as one of the greatest collapses in the sport’s rich history.

At least Kyle Busch is in fine company.