Stewart was never that bad, was he?
Kyle Busch has, undoubtedly, replaced Tony Stewart as the bad boy of NASCAR. Not so many years ago, it was Stewart who had to go through an anger management program after several run-ins with the motorsports media—run-ins that included damage to cameras and tape recorders (yes, some of us were still using tape recorders back then).
Stewart does still have a somewhat testy relationship with the media, specifically the print media, and to this day, has no problem letting a reporter know when he thinks a question is stupid. Even so, the Stewart today is a kinder, gentler Tony Stewart.
Even at his worst, NASCAR never felt the need to reprimand Stewart the way it recently did Busch. Of course, if my memory serves me right, Stewart never took away a driver’s championship shot within the last two races of a particular series’ season, and I don’t remember him ever “flipping off” a NASCAR official during a pit stop.” Busch, on the other hand—guilty on both counts, and then some.
NASCAR lowered the gauntlet, so to speak, on Busch Friday night, when the driver, apparently, decided it would be a good idea to wreck Ron Hornaday during a caution that came out on lap 13 of the WinStar World Casino 350K at Texas Motor Speedway.
For those few in the racing world who may not have heard, yet, Hornaday, who entered the race just 15 points behind series leader Austin Dillon, and Busch made contact while racing for second spot and trying to get around a lap truck early in the race. Busch blamed Hornaday for the seemingly slight contact and decided to turn Hornaday and sent him hard into the wall as the field took the yellow flag.
The under-caution incident ended the race and championship hopes for Hornaday, and as a result, NASCAR parked Busch for the remainder of the race. The sanctioning body followed that up on Saturday morning by announcing that Busch wouldn’t be allowed to race in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series races at Texas that same weekend.
Then Monday rolled around, and NASCAR wasn’t finished with Busch, yet. On Monday afternoon, Busch was handed a $50,000 fine and placed on probation for the remaining two races of the season, citing that catch-all rule NASCAR always cites, “actions detrimental to stock car racing.”
Every NASCAR fan that’s ever heard or read any kind of NASCAR penalty announcement has heard that one, but, somehow, Busch’s just seemed more severe. Maybe that’s because the sanctioning body hasn’t felt the need in previous penalty announcements to state that if said driver does anything for the remainder of the year that may be considered “detrimental to stock car racing,” he may be suspended from NASCAR indefinitely. In Busch’s case, though, that was made clear.
Ouch, NASCAR is serious. Busch has, obviously, crossed that proverbial line when it comes to “boys have at it.” NASCAR President Mike Helton, when asked where the line not to be crossed would be, said that they’d know it when they saw it. Apparently, on Friday night, they saw it.
Busch’s antics kind of make Stewart seem like a softie from day one, now, doesn’t it?
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