Kyle Busch sought more clarity from NASCAR when it comes to issuing penalties for contact during races.
There has been a very lively discussion around penalties in NASCAR after the race at Phoenix Raceway. Denny Hamlin was charged with a 25 points deduction and Hendrick Motorsports teams were docked 100 points and 10 playoff points each. However, the latter decision was overturned.
As for Hamlin, he was penalized for intentionally wrecking Ross Chastain during the race and admitting to it afterwards.
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Given the confusion of the situation, Busch wants NASCAR to clarify its rules.
“Well, I think where I agree a lot with Denny is — if we’re supposed to be self-policing and have the opportunity to be able to go out there and do something if someone did something to us and us to be able to go back and retaliate, how are we supposed to do that?” Busch said.
“Tell me what is and isn’t OK. Apparently saying it two days after the fact is not OK. Saying it right after the fact when you’re still ‘hot and bothered’ is OK.”
Busch’s comment also comes after Joey Logano intentionally made contact with William Byron at Darlington Raceway in 2023 but did not receive a penalty for it. He also added that NASCAR could take an example from local short-track racing series on how to deal with such incidents.
“You want to bring up an example from COTA,” Busch said. “You had the No. 1 that got into the No. 48 who go into the No. 99. So who do you penalize between the No. 48 and the No. 1, right? All of them. Anybody that is involved in the caution, go to the back.
“That’s how we do it with the kids racing at seven years old. So if we can teach seven and eight-year-olds that’s not the way you’re supposed to do it and you need to race clean, then surely we should be able to teach 18 or 19-year-olds to Harvick’s 46 or 47. We should be able to figure it out.”
Busch has also been at the centre of the conversations demanding respect and clean racing from his fellow drivers. He sees a decline in racing etiquette among drivers right now, something which was present in the past drivers.