Car owner Richard Childress was fined $150,000 and placed on probation until December 31st for an after race incident involving driver Kyle Busch.
The closing laps of last Saturday's O'Reily Auto Parts 250 saw Busch and Richard Childress Racing driver Joey Coulter battling side by side for fifth, a battle Coulter narrowly won. On the cool down lap afterwards, Busch was seen bumping the No. 22 RCR/Darrell Gwynn Foundation Chevrolet, something he told the media in Pocono on Friday was a "congratulatory bump."
That bump led to a confrontation in the garage area between Childress and Busch, with Childress allegedly putting Busch in a headlock before punching him several times.
On Sunday, before the innaugural STP 400, NASCAR met with Busch, Childress and Busch's Cup Series owner Joe Gibbs.
NASCAR President Mike Helton said in a press conference after the meetings that Childress' "actions were not appropriate and fell far short of the standard we expect of owners in this sport." Helton went on to say that Busch, who is still on probabtion after an incident in Darlington with another RCR driver, Kevin Harvick, "did nothing to provoke or to cause... (or) warranted the actions of Richard Childress." He added that "unless you know something we don't", Busch did nothing to violate probabtion.
Along with the fine and probation, Childress was not allowed on pit road Sunday in Kansas.
Busch has spoken several times to the media about the incident, while Childress remained silent until meeting with the media Friday at the Pocono Raceway. He did not, however, take questions.
"The black hat deal, the villian type thing; I'm not sure that I really did a whole lot to bring that back upon myself," Busch, who has said several times this year he wants to back away from his bad guy persona in the sport, said on Friday. "I feel like I've acted in the upmost respect to every case that'scome up my way and thrown in front of me. I've tried to do it with dignity and class and I feel that comes from people who wear the white hats, not black."
During their own media sessions on Friday RCR drivers Harvick and Clint Bowyer both spoke in support of their car owner, both citing his passion and determination for this sport, with Harvick adding "he's a great guy and I'm proud of his team."
Thanks to ESPN, NASCAR.com, Racing Reference and SB Nation for the quotes and information used in this piece.
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