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Written by:
Tom Jensen
06/07/2007 - 07:00 PM
Long Pond, Pa.
The stiff penalty dropped Busch from 11th to 18th in the championship standings. (LAT Photo) » More Photos
Kurt Busch, the 2003 NASCAR Nextel Cup champion and a man who's no stranger to controversy, has been fined $100,000 and 100 driver points by NASCAR after driving into Tony Stewart's pit box Monday and nearly striking one of Stewart's crewman.
Busch was also placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31 for violating Section 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing – reckless driving; endangering a crew member on pit road) of the 2007 NASCAR rulebook. Car owner Roger Penske was penalized with the loss of 100 owner points.
The altercation occurred during Monday's Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway, just moments after Stewart's Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet bounced off the frontstretch wall and hit Busch's Penske Dodge, wrecking both cars. Stewart pitted for repairs afterwards and Busch pulled alongside him on pit road to vent his displeasure. In the process, one of Stewart's crewman was almost hit.
The points fine could have a significant impact on Busch's aspirations for finishing in the top 12 in points during NASCAR's 26-race regular season, which now is exactly half over. After the 26th race, the top-12 drivers qualify for the season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup, a multimillion-dollar bonanza for teams and drivers alike. Busch was 11th in points after Dover on Monday, but with the 100-point fine, he drops to an 18th-place tie with former teammate Greg Biffle.
Busch, who has won 15 races and more than $38 million since moving to NASCAR's top series in 2000, has had a series of high-profile incidents in his Nextel Cup career.
He famously feuded with Jimmy Spencer, with on-track disputes at Phoenix in 2001 and again a year later at Bristol and Indianapolis. At Michigan in August 2003, Busch got on his car radio during a race and admitted trying to flatten the fender of Spencer's car to ruin its aerodynamics. Spencer returned the favor by punching Busch in the face as he sat in his car after the race, breaking Busch's nose. A week later during a press conference at Bristol, Busch launched into an angry tirade against the media, blaming them for his image problems with fans.
At Phoenix in late 2005, Busch was arrested leaving Phoenix International Raceway and charged with felony reckless driving. The incident made national headlines, and although Busch eventually plea-bargained the case to a misdemeanor and become good buddies with Maricopa County Police Chief Joe Arpaio, the damage was done.
Roush Racing fired Busch with two races left in the season, despite Busch being in title contention as one of 10 drivers in the Chase for the Nextel Cup. "It's the last straw for Roush Racing," team president Geoff Smith said the morning of the Phoenix race. "We're officially retiring as Kurt Busch's apologists, effective today."
Busch moved to Penske Racing for 2006, where he underwent an extreme makeover image-wise, including cosmetic plastic surgery, in an attempt to present a kindler, gentler Busch for the fans and the media. By all accounts Busch listened closely to team owner and mentor
Busch also got heavily involved in charity work, donating $1 million last year to Kyle & Pattie Petty's Victory Junction Gang Camp. "I can't tell you what a fine young man we have sitting in this chair," said Pattie Petty during the announcement at Lowe's Motor Speedway in May 2006. "I think that some of you don't know the Kurt Busch and Eva (Busch's then-fiancée, Eva Bryan), that Kyle and I know and the children at camp know. I personally think Kurt Busch is one of the finest men to come along in this garage area."
Still, the on-track issues continued. Busch and Kevin Harvick angrily blamed each other for a crash at Atlanta in March 2006, and during a rainout of qualifying at Bristol the following week, Harvick let loose on Busch. "I think I'd have whooped Kurt Busch before now," Harvick said. "Obviously, he forgot about getting punched in his nose last time from Jimmy Spencer. … I'll still tell you what I think - I'd still like to whip his ass. Before the year's over, he'll make a fool out of Roger Penske."
Busch declined to come out of his transporter to respond to Harvick's comments, but got the best form of revenge two days later by winning the race ahead of Harvick.
In 2007, Busch's troubles with Stewart began at the Daytona 500, where he led more laps than any driver, but hit Stewart's car while he was in the lead, triggering a crash that knocked both drivers out of the race with 47 laps to go.
Then there was the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway, a high-dollar non-points race. With a $1 million winner's purse on the line, Kurt and brother Kyle had a hard crash that knocked both of them out the race. "You can see obviously in TV and around the racetrack and stuff like that that he does have some frustration and you can overhear him on the radio and stuff like that," Kyle Busch said of his big brother during this week's NASCAR teleconference. "Everybody goes through those. It's just about how you bounce back from those and how your team kind of reacts to those so you can come back for another day."
At Dover, things came to a head when Stewart and Kurt Busch crashed again. "I raced the guy (Stewart) all day long and for some reason he just didn't give an inch," said Busch. " … He hit me on the restarts twice. I think he got his mission accomplished. I have no idea (if this stemmed from something else), but I know that he hit us so many times today (that) mission accomplished for Tony."
"I've had plenty of chances to wreck the guy. That's not what it was about. It's about racing people with respect and he hasn't done that with anybody for a year," Stewart countered. You finally get to the point where you're tired of giving guys positions. Most of the guys are pretty good. There are only a couple of bad apples out there and he's one of them."
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