NASCAR: Fighting Is Okay If There Are Pre-Determined Consequences

NASCAR and fighting go together, nobody is denying that. However, NASCAR needs to do themselves a favor and put some rules and guidelines into place to avoid looking as bad as they did this past week.

NASCAR came out of the Kyle Busch and Joey Logano fight looking pretty bad. By NASCAR, I of course mean NASCAR CEO Brian France, who came across more as a father defending his child than he did a CEO of a major sports league.

I understand that NASCAR is caught in the middle when it comes to drivers fighting. After all, most might say that it was drivers fighting that originally put NASCAR on the map. That being said, NASCAR isn’t the NHL (where even they punish athletes for getting into fights during games). If Kyle Busch where in any other sport and he did what he did on Sunday, there would be a good chance he would be missing some time due to a suspension.

Whether you think NASCAR should suspend Busch or not is irrelevant because this isn’t about just the Busch and Logano situation, this is much bigger than that. NASCAR needs to support their drivers without making themselves look foolish and the best way to do that is to have pre-determined consequences in place for when things like this happen.

There are consequences in place for a driver who gets out of their car to approach another car or driver while still on the track, this would be along the same lines.

NASCAR should have a clear rule about what happens when you’re the first driver to throw a punch. I think we can all agree that standing face-to-face and bumping chests isn’t that big of a deal, it’s when punches are thrown that situations escalate. Let’s say that NASCAR decided that any driver who throws the first punch and escalates a fight will automatically be docked 25 championship points, five playoff points and fined $10,000. From there NASCAR can throw in the caveat that they have the right to add to the punishment based on further actions from the driver.

If this basic guideline was set, France could have had a completely different take on the situation the morning after. He could have said all of the same stuff about stress, pressure and emotion and then capped it off with, the drivers know the consequence for throwing a punch. We all know why Busch did what he did but the rub comes when punishment is brought up. So, why not remove the rub? Let the drivers know that if they want to throw punches, here is what’s going to happen.

If NASCAR is then concerned about repeat offenders it can be an escalating scale. An escalating scale would increase the punishment based on the number of times a driver was the catalyst for a fight. The governing body could also throw in guidelines for pit crew members that insert themselves into fights. In some sports there is a fine for even coming off of the bench and onto the playing field during fights, why can’t there be something similar in NASCAR?

Busch wasn’t bloodied by Logano on Sunday, he was bloodied by all of Logano’s crew taking him to the ground. Sure, Busch might have deserved it because he chose to attack Logano when he was surrounded by his team, but maybe the crew shouldn’t get off with a free pass either.

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At the end of the day I know there is a place for fighting in NASCAR but the governing body needs to do a better job of policing it. The best way to do that is to let the drivers know ahead of time what the consequence is for finding a driver after a race and throwing a punch. If the driver is okay with that consequence, so be it. The days of grown men chasing down other men, throwing punches like it’s a middle school fight and NASCAR standing off to the side and trying to explain it as stress and emotion need to end.