Kyle Busch and his sponsors

[Jared East]

I hate to point this out.. however short-memory syndrome seems to be affecting a lot of people recently..

Cast your minds back 2 weeks to Martinsville, and Jamie McMurray did exactly the same thing (or tried to anyway!) to Brian Vickers.. Now, where was the outcry for him to be suspended, fired and fined..?

Texas is a little different than Martinsville bud.

[Osella]

So..? What's your point there..? The outcry has been (mainly) justified as being about one guy wrecking another under caution, not about where it occurred, especially the post I quoted, which referred to this being the worst aspect. That's is why I raised the question of why people aren't clamouring for Jamie McMurray to be fired. Also, remember Brian Vicker's wreck at Martinsville in the Spring and tell me that there isn't just as much - if ot more potential risk to the spectators at Martinsville.
Again, I hve no problem with NASCAR punishing drivers who do it, or fans complaining - but in this case of Kyle and Ron at Texas, the punishment and the complaints are illogical and inconsistent.

[Lee Roy]

One must look at Kyle's history of "issues" this year, not just one incident in isolation.

[Sparky1329]

One must look at Kyle's history of "issues" this year, not just one incident in isolation.

Yes. He has built up an impressive repertoire and made his brother look like a choir boy in comparison.

[MAX_THRUST]

I can recall many time son the road when someone has done something dumb to me on the road. Like the idiot that jumped the red light last night on me, the idiot on his mobile who nearly hit me on the freeway. And over the years thousands of dumb and stupid things have happened. But not once did i decide the right choice of action was to run the other car into a wall. I've wanted to so many times, but I haven't. Surelly if you have so much riding on your career and life that is enough to prevent you from doing it. And NASCAR should clamp down on all incidents like this, as clearly there is a problem with it. If so many drivers are doing it then there is an issue. There was an issue in F1 recently at Spa. Again I felt the driver got off lightly. What would happen to you and me if we did this on the road? We'd be banned from driving possibly.

[Osella]

One must look at Kyle's history of "issues" this year, not just one incident in isolation.

Lee Roy, I agree.
However, that is exactly why I disagree with NASCAR and with those who state that, on the Texas/Hornaday incident in isolation, that Kyle Busch deserved suspending for the whole weekend, or season. Mike Helton stating that the incident by itself deserved the punishment is bizarre, and inconsistent with (for example) Edwards vs Keselowski in the Nationwide series last year - where there was also retaliation (damaging a huge number of other cars), and yet there was no parking of either driver.
Helton's other justification was that Ron Hornaday was competing for a championship, but as I said, so was the 18 truck, so there's no logic there.

It's the level of punishment for 'one incident' where it contradicts what has gone before that infuriates me about the whole scenario; Along with the spinelessness of Mars now, who are just playing the publicity and are clearly not 'that' morally outraged if they're still on the car next year.. (Although to be honest it makes more sense to swap the sponsorship of the 18 and 20, and I hope JGR do that next year).
If Mars were really bothered, they'd insist on that, or alternatively, there are people like Almirola out there, and spaces for 4th cars at both Roush and Childress.. Mars could go to either of those if they're that bothered by Kyle, but they're obviously not really - they just want it to seem that they are.

Likewise, if fans of NASCAR such as yourself want Kyle Busch suspended for an accumulation of incidents then I can't disagree (as I believe should have happened to Lewis Hamilton, but that's a different story!), but the punishment and the reaction is out of proportion, for this one incident on it's own.

[Alexamateo]

In hindsight, Nascar probably regrets not sitting Carl for at least a race. However, if you look at the incident, It's clear that Carl was just trying to spin Keselowski towards the inside of the track. Because of aero issues though the car ended up flipping, and there was a violent crash. There was also a sense of Keselowski had it coming to him because of Kes' rough driving in the past. All of these things come into play.

I maintain that Busch's wreck of Hornaday was different because he got on his bumper and floored it and then hooked him purposely towards the wall head-on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=R-d1xweDlsY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7tVWHGTA2xY

[Osella]

In hindsight, Nascar probably regrets not sitting Carl for at least a race. However, if you look at the incident, It's clear that Carl was just trying to spin Keselowski towards the inside of the track. Because of aero issues though the car ended up flipping, and there was a violent crash. There was also a sense of Keselowski had it coming to him because of Kes' rough driving in the past. All of these things come into play.

I maintain that Busch's wreck of Hornaday was different because he got on his bumper and floored it and then hooked him purposely towards the wall head-on.

That's not the Edwards-Keselowski crash I meant.. The one I was referring to was this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9SQE3R6hGs

Deliberate, wrecked a championship condender in a lower series, caused a load of damage.. Not parked.. No consistency..

[Alexamateo]

Gotcha,

It is different in that they were still racing and under green. Kyle did two things, he got up on Hornaday's bumper and floored it, and when Hornaday didn't spin out, he hooked him towards the wall. I realize you may see it differently, but the powers that be agree with me.

[Osella]

Gotcha,

It is different in that they were still racing and under green. Kyle did two things, he got up on Hornaday's bumper and floored it, and when Hornaday didn't spin out, he hooked him towards the wall. I realize you may see it differently, but the powers that be agree with me.

Yep, can't disagree it's different - certainly in terms of NASCAR's ruling. But not too different in terms of the actual deliberate reaction, so my question on that basis was; why were NASCAR fans then, not asking for Edwards to be fired, why did Aflac not drop him..? I just don't see there's that big a difference, and I think the reaction both from fans and NASCAR is out of proportion when compared to previous incidents And let's not forget that even at Gateway, Edwards and Keselowski both had previous, so it's not like they got a reduced sentence for good behaviour..

And likewise, if doing what Kyle did to Ron Hornaday was so wrong, and in NASCAR's eyes (for this one incident only let us not forget,acording to how Mike Helton explained it), then why has other retribution not been punished similarly previously? - like Jamie McMurray under yellow for example, and also like several other incidents in the Truck series this year alone where there has been payback and deliberate action of this sort on many occasions.

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not defending Kyle and saying he didn't deserve punishment, but I am surprised to say the least that while every single other incident this year, across all the national touring series' even including Darlington which was on pit road - none of those incurred a parking of a driver for more than one race, none of them incurred the loss/potential loss of a sponsor (at least, not officially), and none of them had fans calling for a driver to be fired..
It is the disproportionate reaction that really doesn't make sense, and it will be interesting to see what happens from here on - because I think NASCAR was way over the top at Texas. If they had said it was for an accumulation of incidents, then yeah, fine, understandable. But that's not the line they gave..

And for a sponsor to suspend their backing of a driver..? Either you're in or out, this 'suspension' of sponsorship just doesn't really make any sense other than just running and hiding until the heat dies down, which makes Mars cowards, and of no moral substance, which is the opposite of what they want us all to believe.