NASCAR reveals whether Kyle Busch will be suspended

Kyle Busch must complete sensitivity training after his use of an offensive word in an interview following Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Martinsville Speedway.

Kyle Busch’s frustration with what ended up being a pointless move made on him by Brad Keselowski at the end of Sunday’s round of 8 NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Martinsville Speedway led him to use a word he came to regret using in a post-race interview.

Busch finished the 501-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia in second place, but it was not enough to advance him to the Championship 4 for what would have been the first time since he won his second title in 2019.

Keselowski, who finished in third place despite trying to take Busch out in the final turn on the final lap, also did not advance, and the two made more frustration-driven contact on the cooldown lap.

Busch stated the following after the race.

"“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 did apologize for using the word in question, a telling sign given that Busch isn’t exactly known to apologize for his animated post-race interviews.

But NASCAR still announced that he will be forced to complete sensitivity training for using this particular word.

Fortunately for Busch, he will not have to do so this week to be eligible to compete in Sunday’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway; he will simply need to do so before the start of the 2022 season in February. So he has not been suspended like some predicted he would be.

This punishment differs slightly from those given for similar instances in the past, but likely because of the time of the year when it occurred.

For example, Hailie Deegan used the same word, arguably in a more offensive way without the “-ed” on the end, back in January. Her punishment was also mandatory sensitivity training, but it technically could have been perceived as an indefinite suspension since she needed to complete it in order to be able to compete in the upcoming season at all.

She did so and didn’t miss a race.

But with just one race remaining on the Cup Series schedule, it made sense to push Busch’s training requirement to the offseason.

All in all, if NASCAR was going to penalize Busch for what he said, this was probably the best possible outcome for the driver of the #18 Toyota in terms of the level of punishment; the only way this becomes an “indefinite suspension” is if he for some reason were to refuse to complete the training over the offseason, and that obviously isn’t going to be the case.