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Monday, November 7, 2011

Kyle Busch was a jackass -- but he doesn't deserve a firing squad

I could write a blog about how Kyle Busch is a (fill-in-the-blank) expletive for what he did Friday night to Ron Hornaday in the Truck race ... wrecking him under caution and ruining his title hopes.

But I won't, as that's already been done a hundred times since the incident.

No, what I'm going to do is something quite different: Tell you all to calm down in the Kyle Busch-bashing that's nonstop at the moment.

I find it strange that I'm writing that sentence, as I was disgusted by the acts of Busch Friday night. I don't like him even competing in Truck races, let alone playing a role in who wins the title in that series.

But I have to say NASCAR got it right when they parked Busch for the remainder of the Truck race Friday and the Nationwide and Cup races over the weekend. I wish they had done the same in the past at times -- such as when a laps-down Carl Edwards blatantly wrecked Brad Keselowski during their recent feud. In that instance, and others like it, punishments have traditionally been weak, so it was refreshing to see a driver get parked for a Cup race after the kind of stupidity on display from Kyle Friday night.

BUT ... let's not go too crazy here. There are rumors that Kyle will remain suspended for next week or even the last two weekends. Many fans are all for this, in large part because they hate Kyle Busch, and would probably love to see him suspended forever.

I'm going to guess that the punishment is over in terms of parking Kyle (though I do foresee a large fine and some probation period coming Tuesday), and that's a good thing. As bad as Kyle's actions were, there is no precedent for such an extreme punishment as multi-week suspension, and even this incident wouldn't qualify for such measures.

What I'm saying is simple: If it wasn't Kyle Busch who did this, would the reaction from the people be as strong?

No way.

People hate Kyle Busch. I'm convinced some people think he is the Anti-Christ.
But you know what? He's one of the reasons this sport is interesting. His style of racing is exciting, and he knows how to put on a show.

He is polarizing for sure, but you can't deny his racing talent -- as his bevy of wins in all three series would indicate. He is so young, that he could go on to actually achieve his goal of 200 wins between the three series.

I'm glad he got punished with the weekend parking at Texas, and I think this will actually leave an impression on him and stop him from stooping to this level of dirty racing again. Imagine if he had been in the Chase points battle up top; this could have ruined his title hopes, and I think he recognizes that.

If NASCAR parked Kyle until the end of the year, it would be unnecessarily harsh, and show a bias against this particular driver.

Judging from the tone of some Internet comments, many fans would be happy if Kyle got the electric chair.

I say tone down the rhetoric people; Kyle screwed up and deserves the punishment he already got; but there's no need to act like he murdered someone.

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"but there's no need to act like he murdered someone."

What happens when he does? And if he can't control his anger in a racecar, that's exactly what's going to happen...

November 7, 2011 at 7:08 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

if anything NASCAR hasnt gone far enough yet. if it had been an isolated knee-jerk reaction then the punishment fit the crime. but it wasnt an isolated incident and it wasnt a knee-jerk reaction. watch the video of the wreck again. kyle had time to think about it and you can actually SEE when he makes up his mind to wreck hornaday...under yellow no less. even the liberal judges these days get fed up with seeing the same punks show up in their court rooms and send them to jail. in fact kyle said when edwards intentionally wrecked keselowski earlier this year that edwards should be shut down for three weeks. well, kyle, if the shoe fits...

nuff said

November 7, 2011 at 9:21 AM 
Blogger Matt Myftiu said...

I'm not disputing it was a bad thing Kyle did.

But people have wrecked others under caution many times in the past; and none of them were punished (actually, a year ago at Texas, Burton wrecked Gordon under caution.)

November 7, 2011 at 9:38 AM 
Blogger SuperGrover said...

Exactly. It's not as if this is an unprecedented incident. I personally am shocked by the outcry, especially for wrecking someone such as Hornaday who has put many a driver into the wall. Busch is undoubtedly aggressive, but so are a great number of Cup drivers.

I guess NASCAR's policy of letting driver's police their own only works if it isn't Kyle Busch?

November 7, 2011 at 2:16 PM 
Blogger SuperGrover said...

"but there's no need to act like he murdered someone."

What happens when he does? And if he can't control his anger in a racecar, that's exactly what's going to happen..

>>> Please. Earnhardt wrecked more people in his career than Busch could fathom. Why were people never up in arms about parking him?

November 7, 2011 at 2:17 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What Shrub did was over the line, but no where near as dangerous as when Cousin Carl dumped Super K @ "Dega. That was dangerous to many in the stands. Why no such outcry then? I think it is Junior Nation upset that Shurb is more Dale Sr. than Dale Jr. will ever be. Just sayin'...

November 7, 2011 at 6:04 PM 

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