Several penalties were recently thrown out by NASCAR right after the Texas weekend; however, it wasn’t what anyone expected. Kyle Busch seems to be running on a cloud of luck, as he managed to walk free, while another driver, in a similar incident, was fined heavily.
RFK driver faces massive fine after contact with Joe Gibbs’ grandson
Ryan Preece was seemingly not having the best day at the Texas Motor Speedway, and shortly afterwards, his Ford was shaken as Ty Gibbs’ rough driving threatened him. This eventually led to a massive meltdown on the team radio for Preece against Gibbs:
“When I get to that 54, I’m done with him,” he said. “That car is so f–king fast, pisses me off. I can’t stand when idiots like him have fast race cars where they can do stupid s–t and get away with it. End of rant.”
And moments later, something more interesting happened.
Gibbs spun around and hit the wall, ending his race. Initially, many thought that this was yet another Texas incident, following the many ‘bumpy’ situations drivers had been all weekend. However, it was interesting to note that Preece was racing right behind him at the time. While the latter claimed that he made no contact whatsoever, the onboard cams from other cars told a different story.
After analyzing the entire situation, NASCAR disrupted the silence that followed the race, dropping a massive $50,000 fine against Preece, further docking him of 25 driver points.
This is understandably a massive fine, but not unprecedented. Back in March of 2023, Denny Hamlin was given the same penalty for intentionally wrecking Ross Chastain into the wall. The fine was under the Member Code of Conduct, Section 4.4 of the NASCAR rulebook: “Attempting to manipulate the outcome of the race or championship and wrecking or spinning another vehicle.”
All of this happened while Kyle Busch walked free once again. He was under investigation for causing a wreck in the final moments of the race. His contact with John Hunter Nemechek, which was seemingly quite deliberate, did not face any penalties. While the exact reason for this is not known, it is quite possible that NASCAR did not find enough evidence, especially considering that Busch didn’t claim that the wreck was intentional; moreover, he came out with telemetry data on his socials to back himself up.
This is a developing story…..
