Kyle Busch is safe – but not everybody was so lucky.
NASCAR has issued their penalties from this past weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, and to the surprise of some, Kyle Busch wasn’t penalized for intentionally wrecking John Hunter Nemechek during a late race run-in.
The driver of the #8 car for Richard Childress Racing managed to qualify 6th, his best starting position since he won the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500. And he actually managed to run well most of the day, spending the majority of the Würth 400 inside the top 10.
But things went south with just two laps to go, with Busch running 11th and John Hunter Nemechek running just behind him in 12th in the #42 car for Legacy Motorsports.
Now, both drivers have differing views on who’s at fault, but it started when Busch attempted to pull in front of Nemechek on the backstretch. The #8 car wasn’t clear of the front bumper of the 42, and ended up getting into the outside wall.
Busch clearly wasn’t happy with Nemechek, and as they drove into turn 3 appeared to intentionally get into his door and send the #42 car spinning.
Like I said, the two drivers didn’t agree what happened during the first incident on the backstretch. Afterwards, Nemechek took to social media with some harsh words for Busch, who he felt screwed up by trying to pull in front of him when he wasn’t clear:
Busch, on the other hand, blamed Nemechek for (at least according to Kyle) running too far off the outside wall and messing up his line:
He didn’t, however, address what appeared to be his intentional wrecking of Nemechek in turn 3. And given NASCAR’s precedent in suspending drivers in the past for intentionally wrecking somebody, many were wondering whether Busch would be suspended for this upcoming weekend’s race at Watkins Glen.
Well NASCAR issued their weekly penalty report this afternoon, and not only was Busch not suspended, but he wasn’t penalized at all for the incident with Nemechek.
There was however, another driver penalized for intentionally wrecking someone: Ryan Preece was docked 25 points and fined $50,000 for intentionally taking out Ty Gibbs.
The incident between Preece and Gibbs came on lap 101, when Preece appeared to drive into the back of the #54 car and send him spinning into the outside wall, bringing his race to an end.
Earlier in the race, Preece had voiced his frustration with Gibbs when the #54 car drove hard into turn one and slid up close to the #60, forcing him to get off the gas and costing him several spots. Preece had immediately keyed up the radio after the move from Gibbs:
“What a f—ing idiot that kid is. He is so lucky his car is so f—ing fast.”
And a few laps later, he made it clear that he was coming for Preece:
“When I get to that 54, I’m done with him. F—ing idiot. … I can’t stand when idiots like him have fast race cars that they can do stupid s–t and get away with it. End of rant.”
(Yes, he actually said “end of rant” on the radio).
Fast forward to the wreck, and Preece said earlier today on SiriusXM that while he wasn’t going to cut Gibbs any breaks, he doesn’t feel like he actually touched him:
“I was right there and I felt like he came down, and I was not going to cut him a break because in the past, him and I have had problems. So I’ve got a little bit of a short fuse with him and I, with how we’re racing. And that was just one of those situations that, could I cut him a break? Probably could have, but I didn’t. And ultimately, I didn’t feel like I hit him. I felt like I stayed right on him, and he got loose, and from there on, unfortunately, he wrecked.”
Well unfortunately for Preece, NASCAR wasn’t buying it and issued the penalty this afternoon that drops him one spot in the points from 12th to 13th.
But why wasn’t Kyle Busch penalized too?
NASCAR VP of race communications Mike Forde explained their decision this afternoon on his Hauler Talk podcast, claiming that after reviewing the data from both incidents, it wasn’t clear to NASCAR VP of competition Elton Sawyer that Busch’s contact with Nemechek was intentional:
“The SMT data is largely what played a role for us in this decision,” Forde said. “Elton Sawyer said the data told us that after the incident, (Busch) was turning the wheel all the way left just to go straight. So we had a feeling that he had some pretty significant damage. And it was inconclusive on if that was a damaged vehicle that caused (Busch) to get into (Nemechek), or if it was intentional. There were zero things that, in our opinion, said he did this intentionally, and it rose to the level of penalty. So that’s why we landed on no penalty.”
Now, it definitely looked like Busch turned right to get into Nemechek. The steering might have been off on the car, but whatever he did caused his car to turn into Nemechek’s door.
But apparently NASCAR decided that it wasn’t clear enough to issue a penalty.
