Massive, massive unchecked ego and a sense of entitlement. He is Kyle Busch, you are nothing, get the hell out of the way. Particularly in Truck and Nationwide.
This wasn't a simple case of "you bumped me so I bump you" retaliation. Lots of people have been asking why this is different from Carl Edwards on Keselowski, or Brian Vickers last week at Martinsville. The differences couldn't be bigger.
- He dumped a guy racing for a championship in a series Kyle doesn't even collect points in.
- He dumped him under caution
- He dumped him in retaliation for a minor mistake caused by taking air off his spoiler
- Both trucks were repairable and they each could've salvaged top 10s. Hell they've both won with trucks beat up worse than that, even on fast tracks.
- Maybe most importantly, he didn't just spin him out. He HOOKED him. And he hooked him at speeds of 160+ mph when they hadn't even come down on speed yet. If it weren't for SAFER Barriers we might be talking about how Kyle Busch killed Ron Hornaday instead. I'm sure he didn't purposely want to injure Hornaday physically, but the complete recklessness and not thinking about that makes all the difference. That's why Edwards tapping Keselowski on the front straight at Atlanta is NOT the same thing.
I'm glad they parked him for a weekend, NASCAR for once showed some consistency in their rulings. But the fine and probation is a joke for a multi-millionare. Obviously he's the future of NASCAR (as awful as that might be), but I say ban him from the Truck Series. It's just one big weekly ego-stroke for him anyway.
Busch headlining a race didn't get me to go when he was here.... watching our home talent did. But that is a different scenario, and not really in the same league. Dale Jr. (an example... any driver really) isn't as headlining as his old man, neither is Hornaday. But these guys have either been lucky (family ties), or busted their butts to get into the show. GRANTED, Rowdy Kyle is probably one of the most talented drivers in ovals today. Does this mean he gets a 'pass' for being so retarded (lack of a better term)? A guy with that much talent doing dirty poop like that needs a cat scan, i don't mean (edit) Whiska's cat food.
I can say, at least he isn't pulling a Jeremy Mayfield, and stating NASCAR has it out for him. But, it doesn't excuse it either.
And what take away any talent that series had?
So.... You're literally saying that without Kyle Busch, the Truck series wouldn't be fun to watch anymore? So you enjoy Busch leading every lap and winning by 30 seconds with his pseudo-Cup car and his Cup team, but you don't enjoy three-four equal trucks beating and banging, nose to tail and wheel to wheel for the win?
I think we enjoy different things about racing then. You need to watch more Formula 1.
If Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick didn't race in the Truck Series, way way WAY more young talent would have the chance to shine. Think of the number of times Ricky Carmichael, Jason White, Nelson Piquet, James Beuscher, Parker Kligermann, Joey Coulter, etc etc etc finished second or third to Kyle Busch, and you'll have the number of times there would've been awesome, wheel to wheel fights for the win and new names in victory lane. Plus some badass veterans thrown in the mix.
Thankfully, it still happens sometimes in Truck, so I still love watching it. Nationwide has been horrible for a decade.
The whole point to the Trucks and Nationwide *is* to take away "that level of talent," so they can race in Cup, and leave the feeder series to, y'know, FEED. There's a reason there hasn't been a half-decent rookie battle in the Cup series for a billion years--it's because they're getting beaten down by Cup teams in the series they SHOULD be showcased in.
But anyway, that's skipping the original point, which is that he was an asshole and was completely wrong for what he did. He uses the Truck series as his own personal playground, he's dumped plenty of other drivers before (just not in such a dangerous way), he has zero respect for veterans or rookies alike. I highly doubt banning him from the Truck Series would hurt ratings on SPEED much. Truck fans are Truck fans.
On a related note: I wonder if this changes anything for a Kyle Busch invitational next year? 😀
invite him and hornaday