The Camping World Truck Series prides itself on having tough trucks and even tougher racing. That is the case most of the time, as the drivers take advantage of the new "Boys have at it" mentality just about every week.
But Friday night in the Texas truck race, there was an early incident that was anything but good, hard racing.
Kyle Busch raced Ron Hornaday side by side for second place. No harm, no foul. But when the two came up on a lapped truck, Hornaday was forced to move up the track to avoid contact. Busch had Hornaday pinched down so low that when he moved up, Busch's truck took the air off the back of Hornady's. This caused Hornaday to get loose and both drivers to make contact with the wall. This was merely a racing incident that happens almost every week.
The caution came out and both trucks drove away. But they didn't make it to the next corner without things getting crazy.
Busch drove straight into the back of Hornaday's No. 33 truck and when he couldn't spin him that way, decided to hook him in the right rear and turn him into the outside wall. Both trucks were rendered irreparable and Busch was parked by Nascar for the balance of the event and told to meet with them after the race and again on Saturday morning. You can watch the whole incident here and judge for yourselves.
That is when they dropped the bomb. After reviewing everything that went on Friday night and Busch's on-track history, Nascar decided to park him for the remainder of the weekend. This means that Denny Hamlin drove his Nationwide car, Michael McDowell will pilot his M&M's Camry on Sunday and he will not get one, single championship point.
Bravo Nascar!
People criticize the sanctioning body no matter what they do (myself included), but they definitely made the right call here.
This was not "Boys have at it." This was a blatant attempt to wreck a driver under caution. And despite the fact this was under yellow, both trucks were still pushing 150 mph. If there hadn't been a safer barrier, who knows what would've happened to Hornaday.
Nascar can now set a precedent going forward that if you use your car as a weapon, you will be parked. There is no excuse for turning your racecar into a 3,400 lb missile, I don't care how mad you get. At a place like Texas where speeds can top 190 mph, people can and will get hurt if they get turned into the wall like that.
There is also talk in the garage that Kyle's stay on the couch may last until the end of the season. That may be a little extreme, but Busch would definitely have earned it. Even just parking him for the weekend in Texas drove the message home that Nascar is not playing around. Kyle has been doing this for the past few years (Darlington this past spring is the first race that comes to mind) and this is the only thing that will get through to him, or any driver for that matter. Monetary fines are like pocket change for these guys and points don't mean anything to them either.
Mike Helton said it best in Nascar's press conference that this incident just showed Kyle's overreaction to a racing incident. Hornaday was in the thick of the title hunt and now he is mathematically eliminated from netting his fifth championship. All because an angry Cup driver decided his Truck Series playtime wasn't going his way and lost his temper.
Hopefully this will teach Busch a lesson, humble him a bit and he will finally act like a mature adult on the track. Bill France (Sr and Jr) would agree that he needs this sport a whole lot more than it needs him.
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