Busch, one of the most emotional racers in NASCAR had a difficult weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
In Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series, Busch lost his shot at a series-record 13th victory in a single season when Carl Edwards appeared to jump a late-race restart.
After the race, Busch let loose with a series of expletives in his PRN post-race radio interview and stormed out of his mandatory appearance in the TMS Media Center after fielding just three questions. Asked if he’d gone to NASCAR to discuss Edwards’ restart, Busch said, “Does it f---ing matter? The race is over. The guy’s in victory lane. It doesn’t matter.”
...and it got worse on Sunday.
After spinning out in the AAA Texas 500, Busch was penalized for speeding on pit road. When he pulled into the pits, he flipped an upraised middle finger at a NASCAR official, an act that was captured on camera. For making the gesture, Busch was penalized an additional two laps. He finished the race in 32nd place.
NASCAR officials decided to finedBusch $25,000 and put him on suspension until the year for violating Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing – inappropriate gesture and verbal abuse to NASCAR Officials) of the 2010 NASCAR Rule Book. And there could be more to come according to Kerry Tharp, NASCAR's director of communications, competition.
"The 18 car, what he did out on pit road, was unacceptable. It's inappropriate at any level of sport, so we'll take a hard look at that.
It is severe. And we made a call there during the race. But as you well know, there are times when we also go back in the first of the week and gather and talk and take a look at the circumstances involved. Again, I don't think I can reiterate enough [that] the actions you take toward one of our officials, that's serious. We take that very seriously, and I think this is one we're going to take a very hard look at.
It's in the rulebook. It's on the pit-road rulebook card as well.
Any time you make an obscene or inappropriate gesture to one of our officials, which he did, you're subject to penalty. We penalized him during the course of the race. We held him two laps. But I tell you what, we're going to go back this week when we get to Concord, N.C., and we're going to review this situation and there could be further penalties regarding the No. 18 car."
Officials told Busch's team during the race that the driver was being penalized for "unsportsmanlike conduct." Although Tharp said Busch was penalized for the gesture, the official post-race infraction sheet stated that it was for "verbal abuse to a NASCAR official" as well as noting the obscene gesture.
Tharp made it clear that NASCAR would not tolerate such abuse of its officials. Moreover, Tharp dismissed Busch's contention on his team radio that perhaps he should not have been penalized for speeding in the first place.
"Well, he was speeding. It's a call that we make. We've made it before this season. It's not like this is the first time we've made a call like this. He got himself in that area of where he shouldn't have been as far as coming off pit road, and we made the call, and we believe it's the right call. And then things kind of escalated after that."
Moments after the penalty, Busch issued an apology.
“I accept NASCAR’s penalty and realize what I did during Sunday’s race at Texas was inappropriate. Even in my relatively short time here in NASCAR, it’s pretty obvious to everyone that I wear my emotions on my sleeve. Sometimes that passion has allowed me to find that little something extra I needed to win, and other times it’s made me cross the line. Sunday at Texas was one of those days.
I lost my cool, plain and simple. It’s not acceptable, and I know that. I apologize to NASCAR, its fans, all the partners who support Joe Gibbs Racing, and all the people who work so hard to give me a race car that’s capable of winning races every week. All of those people deserve better from me, and I owe it to them to keep my emotions in check.
It was a tough day. We had a fast race car. ... I can't say enough to the guys that gave me a fast race car, but unfortunately I got spun out there trying to get to the bottom lane."
J.D. Gibbs, president of the Joe Gibbs Racing team that owns Busch's No. 18 Toyota, expressed regret for Busch's actions and admitted that Busch needs to learn to control his emotions better on the race track.
"I think overall it's just he did something there that got caught on TV. Everyone saw it and I think it was their way of saying, 'Hey, here's our game; if you want to play, here are the rules you play by.
I think over the years, every driver that we've had has been passionate about what they do. They express it in different ways. We went through a lot of the same issues when Tony Stewart was driving for us, and I think it's one of those things [where Busch has] grown in a lot of areas and really matured in a lot of areas.
But for him around that race car when things don't go well, I think there is a real frustration there. I think that's just something that he's going to have to continue to work on -- and I think he acknowledges that, he admits that. But right when it happens, it's hard for him to control that. I think that's just an area that in general and in life he's going to have to address -- and I think he knows that and that's nothing new. We've just got to make sure it happens sooner rather than later."
