I’ve harped away on the incident between Kyle Busch and Ron Hornaday, and it has been well documented that Kyle Busch will be parked for the Cup race tomorrow because of his stupid actions in the Truck Series but…
“Ultimately, Busch may face sanctions more severe than those levied by NASCAR. Addressing the media this morning in Texas, team owner Joe Gibbs accepted blame for his driver’s actions, saying, “It definitely rests with me. When you own something& you’re responsible. I take full responsibility for it.” Gibbs hinted that conversations have taken place with team sponsors about how to proceed, and sources in the NASCAR garage say serious consideration is being given to parking Busch for the remainder of the 2011 Sprint Cup and Nationwide campaign.(Sirius Speedway)(11-5-2011)”
Source: www.jayski.com
The part that worries me about that quote is the part where they are seriously considering parking Busch from further competition in NASCAR for the rest of the season. Yes what he did was stupid and suspension from racing for the rest of this weekend is a pretty sizable punishment on its own. However, the fact that NASCAR is considering suspending him from further competition in all three major series, including Sprint Cup…which up until he was parked for the weekend he could have still been in contention for the cup…is a bit over the top in my opinion.
The reality is that Kyle Busch intentionally spun out Ron Hornaday, a championship contender in the truck series, and now Busch is being parked. How many times on the Sprint Cup Tour alone has this happened? I’m thinking of a particular incident between 5 time champion Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch where Johnson admitted to spinning out Kurt Busch during a race at Richmond International Raceway. Both were in contention for the championship, however no penalties like this one, or the one that they are thinking of levelling against Kyle Busch, were ever administered to NASCAR’s Golden Boy.
If NASCAR parks Kyle Busch for the remainder of the season they are exhibiting uninhibited prejudice. I bet there are some who would like to kick Busch out of NASCAR altogether (which would be a shame).
What I would suggest is that if they’re not going to park Jimmie Johnson for the remainder of the season for an intentional spin out of a championship contender, they shouldn’t do that to Kyle Busch.
In my opinion the one weekend suspension is enough.