Written by
The Sports Network
Fort Worth, TX (Sports Network) - When is Kyle Busch finally going to grow up?
NASCAR's drama king has really done it this time. After Busch deliberately
wrecked Ron Hornaday Jr. in the early going of Friday night's Camping World
Truck Series event at Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR parked him for the
Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races here this weekend.
Busch might be facing further actions by NASCAR, as well as Joe Gibbs Racing.
After getting married last December, the "rowdy" side of Busch was supposed to
disappear. Not so in 2011.
Consider how disorderly Busch has been so far this year.
In May, he was placed on probation for four weeks and received a $25,000 fine
for his post-race physical altercation with Richard Childress Racing driver
Kevin Harvick at Darlington.
The feud between Busch and Harvick has been on-going throughout the season,
especially after Busch's retaliation against Hornaday at Texas. Hornaday, a
record four-time Truck Series champion, presently drives for Kevin Harvick
Inc.
Several weeks after his Darlington incident, Busch's troubles continued when
he was cited for driving his Lexus LFA sports car at 128 mph in a 45 mph zone
near the North Carolina town of Troutman. He later pled guilty to the charges,
in which he received a $1,000 fine and had his state drivers license revoked
for 45 days.
Then in June, he was involved in an altercation with team owner Richard
Childress at Kansas. The skirmish between the two occurred in the garage area
shortly after the truck race there, with Childress allegedly punching Busch
several times. Busch purposely hit the side of Joey Coulter's truck during the
cool-down lap in the Kansas race. Coulter, a rookie this season, drives for
RCR.
Texas was certainly the big one for Busch, as his non-participation in
Sunday's 500-mile Sprint Cup race will indeed end any hopes of him winning the
Sprint Cup Series title. He came to Texas trailing leader Carl Edwards by 57
points in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship standings.
What's most disturbing about his retaliation against Hornaday is that he put
Hornaday's life in danger, especially at a time when driver safety has become
a major issue following the fatal crash of Dan Wheldon in last month's IndyCar
race at Las Vegas. Busch hit the back of Hornaday at a high speed and then
slammed him hard into the outside wall during the caution.
Hornaday came to Texas 15 points behind leader Austin Dillon in the truck
standings, but Busch ruined Hornaday's opportunity to claim another series
title. He trails Dillon by 48 points with only one race to go -- November 18
at Homestead, FL.
On Saturday night, Busch released a statement to apologize for his latest
outburst.
"I want to sincerely apologize for my actions during Friday night's Truck
Series race at Texas," Busch said in his statement. "I apologize to my fans,
all my sponsors, everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports...I'd
also like to apologize to Ron Hornaday Jr., and everyone associated with the
No.33 team in the Truck Series."
Busch also accepted NASCAR's actions taken against him.
"I understand why I was taken out of the car for the rest of the weekend," he
noted. "NASCAR officials had to act, and I accept their punishment and take
full responsibility for my actions. As a racecar driver, the hardest thing to
do is to sit on the sidelines listening to cars on the track when you know you
should be out there competing. For this, I have no one to blame but myself."
Busch attended Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Texas, sitting atop his team's pit
box and watching Michael McDowell drive his car around the fast 1.5-mile
track.
There's no doubt that Busch's latest escapade has jeopardized JGR's
relationship with its sponsors for his No.18 team in NASCAR's top-two series.
"I think right now we're just trying to handle the first things first for us,
and there's so many things to consider and so many people to meet with," team
owner Joe Gibbs said during a press conference on Saturday at Texas. "I think
we're still early in the process, and we're trying to work our way through it
as best and fast as we can."
Busch became the third driver to be suspended for a Cup race within the past
decade.
Harvick sat out the 2002 spring Cup race at Martinsville one day after he was
parked for rough driving in the truck event there. NASCAR also grounded Robby
Gordon for the August 2007 race at Pocono following his on-track altercation
with Marcos Ambrose in the inaugural Nationwide event at Montreal.
Prior to the start of the 2010 season, NASCAR adopted its "boys, have at it"
policy, in which the sanctioning body relaxed on patrolling its drivers in
handling affairs on the racetrack.
But in some cases, NASCAR officials have been forced to take actions lighter
than the one they did against Busch, particularly the incident between Carl
Edwards and Brad Keselowski in last year's spring Cup race at Atlanta. Edwards
intentionally wrecked Keselowski, putting him airborne and then into the wall
along the frontstretch.
"It's natural in our industry and our sport, for NASCAR's regulatory
responsibilities, to watch the evolution of a policy or procedure and learn
from it and possibly react differently," NASCAR President Mike Helton said.
"Although I would remind you in the incident with Carl Edwards and Keselowski
in Atlanta, there was a reaction for us. There was points and money involved
in that reaction, so there was some sort of reaction.
"There's been a lot of other occurrences that we felt like were more in
opportunity to responsibility given to drivers along the way, but there are
lines that have been crossed. The 18 [Busch] and 29 [Harvick] in Darlington
got a reaction from us. [Friday night's truck race at Texas] is the most
severe reaction under these circumstances."
Busch's actions at Texas clearly crossed the line of boys, have at it, and
NASCAR sent the right message by parking him for the remainder of this
weekend's activities.
If there's one thing Busch should learn from all of this...it's time to grow
up.
The Sports Network