So as I am sure we are all aware by now, Kyle Busch intentionally spun out Ron Hornaday in the Camping World Truck Series Race two weeks ago in Texas. As a result, he was banned from the races in the Nationwide Series that Saturday and the Cup Series on Sunday. There has been a lot written and spoken about it, but here is my humble opinion on the matter from a driver’s perspective.
While I do not scream it from the rooftops, I do not hide the fact that I am not, and have never been a fan of Kyle Busch. Therefore I am going to try to be as unbiased as possible.
So was NASCAR asking for someone like KB to step up to the plate when they told the drivers, “Boys, have at it?” Or do you think it would have happened anyway?
There have been several instances where a driver took out another driver and nothing was done about it. Has KB’s prior infractions played a role in his punishment and is that a fair thing to do?
Without a doubt, KB’s previous infractions played a role on the punishment he was given. He took it to an extreme and took things past the point of excitement for the fans, and made it dangerous for his competitors.
When we think of how freak events like the crash that killed Dan Wheldon, it is absolutely stupid for a professional race car driver to put another competitor in to the wall at 100+ mph. Enough accidents take place in our sport that we do not need to be adding ways to make more of them.
This is probably what makes me most upset and brings out the emotion for me. How can you see what happened just a week or two earlier and go hit someone and cause them to wreck?
What if something had happened, if a larger crash was caused and it had got even more out of control all because of one driver who is a hot head?
As far as excitement in NASCAR, this “Boys, have at it” attitude needs to be kept off the race track. If controversy is really what the fans want then put a camera on drivers when they get in each others face off track. Frankly, the drivers who take their aggression out on the race track have no business in professional motorsports.
We could also get into how things like this affect the business side of the sport. Companies who are involved in NASCAR do not want drivers like this endorsing their company.
When that happens, you get a lot of upset fans and all of a sudden, who really wants to eat M&M’s when they support someone like KB and his childish antics?
From a sponsors’ perspective, you want someone like Carl Edwards representing you. While he has not been perfect, for the most part, he has been a clean, fair driver. He is excellent at representing his sponsors and not making them look like idiots for supporting him.
We as drivers need to also understand that it is not just us who we are impacting with our actions. There is a whole team of people working behind the scenes to keep us on track. We are just the face of it and we need to behave as such.
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