Kyle Busch might have forced NASCAR’s hand after Martinsville

Based on a previous instance, NASCAR may have no option but to penalize Kyle Busch after his post-race comments at Martinsville Speedway.

Sunday’s round of 8 NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Martinsville Speedway did not go Kyle Busch’s way.

Based on where Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. was running, fourth place, ahead of the overtime restart with two laps to go around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia, Busch, even though he entered the race one point ahead of the Championship 4 cut line, needed to win to advance to the final round.

And so did third place driver Brad Keselowski of Team Penske.

But neither driver could get to the back of the #48 Chevrolet of Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman, who was racing solely for his fourth win of the season since he had already been eliminated from championship contention after the round of 8.

Coming off of turn four, Keselowski tried to spin Busch out but failed to do so. Then going into turn one on the cooldown lap, contact was made between the two drivers, and Busch spun because of it.

The whole situation was seen as quite puzzling, considering the fact that Busch, who finished in second place, didn’t really do anything specific to irritate Keselowski beforehand.

Plus, second place would not have transferred Keselowski to the Championship 4 — and Busch himself didn’t advance either. It was Truex who claimed the fourth and final spot on points with a fourth place finish.

Additionally, it marked the second time in the race that Keselowski had made an aggressive move on a driver who he really had no need to spin at that particular time; he had earlier spun out Chase Elliott, who had already locked himself into the Championship 4.

In Keselowski’s defense, while some believe he made himself look bad for doing what he did to Elliott and then doing what he did to Busch, that battle with Busch could have been for the final Championship 4 spot had Bowman’s #48 Chevrolet failed post-race inspection.

Not only was the move unsuccessful, but Bowman’s car did pass inspection.

Busch was quite puzzled about Keselowski’s move, given that it did, in fact, prove to be nothing more than a battle for nothing more than second place, and he used a word he ended up regretting in a post-race interview.

Here is what he had to say.

"“He drills my ass coming out of [turn] four for no reason. I mean, where was he going? What was he going to do? Spin me out? He was trying to do a Harvick is what he was trying to do. For what? For second place? To do what? He wasn’t going to transfer through with that!“Just fricking retarded man. So stupid. I don’t understand these guys. I should beat the shit out of him right now is what I should do, but that doesn’t do me any good either. … I’ve already had to pay enough fines in my lifetime. I’m sure I’ll get another one.”"

He’ll probably be right about the fine, and he may very well need to take sensitivity training as well for his use of the same word that led NASCAR to require Hailie Deegan to take sensitivity training before the season began.

Of course, one could make the case that the two occurrences were slightly different, as Deegan used the word without the “-ed” on the end.

The word Deegan used is defined as “a person who has a mental disability (often used as a general term of abuse)”, whereas the word Busch used has evolved over time into one with multiple definitions.

One is “less advanced in mental, physical, or social development than is usual for one’s age”, while the other is simply “very foolish or stupid”.

Clearly Busch was using it solely for the latter purpose, though the fact that he chose to use this particular word to drive that point across is what will bite him here.

He even apologized for using it afterward, something we don’t often see.

As for NASCAR being forced to penalize Busch based on the Deegan incident, this is not to say that they wouldn’t punish him anyway. It’s simply to say that they have no way to explain not taking action here given the fact that they handed down punishment to Deegan in January — an offseason month, no less. The precedent was set.

While requiring sensitivity training may not be considered severe punishment, it could technically be classified as an indefinite suspension if they require him to do so before he returns to action.

With that being said, no punishment has been announced at this time.