Kurt Busch is slamming NASCAR’s broken penalty system following a controversial ruling at Texas Motor Speedway. The former champion argues that using radio transmissions to judge driver intent is flawed. He pointed to a 2002 altercation with Richard Childress as proof that the eyeball test matters more than audio.

On his appearance on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, he was asked about NASCAR’s decision to penalize Ryan Preece for wrecking Ty Gibbs in Texas. Kurt felt NASCAR should judge for the visual rather than the radio talk.

While discussing the incident on the podcast, Kurt recalled his penalty from the 2002 All-Star race.

"I needed a yellow. So I wrecked Robby Gordon late in the race. And I didn't say anything. But the yellow came out, we got another set of tires.

"...I was on a radio show Tuesday afterwards, and I said, ‘ Oh yeah, I wrecked him.’ I was looking for a yellow because I needed one more shot. On Wednesday, NASCAR issued me a $100,000 penalty, even though it was an All-Star Race. Richard Childress wanted to fight me.”

NASCAR let Kyle Busch walk free due to the lack of threatening radio from the RCR driver. Whereas his teammate sounded his frustration towards Gibbs on the radio a few laps prior to the wreck.

Between these two incidents, it is worth noting how the radio messages play an important role when it comes to decision-making.

Kurt Busch questions NASCAR’s penalty decision 

Currently the contrasting Texas penalty is the most talked about in the NASCAR world. While the two-time NASCAR champion walked away freely after his wreck with John Hunter Nemechek, his teammate who was involved in a similar incident a few laps prior was fined $50,000 and docked 25 points. 

The decision maker was the radio message. NASCAR pointed out the lack of threatening radio on Busch’s end. However, Kurt does not agree with the decision. 

He expressed his views on the aforementioned podcast, saying, "That's the problem of the problem. NASCAR shouldn’t go off of what someone says on the radio. They should be able to look them the eyeball, like the eyeball test."

Then, Kurt himself brought his brother Kyle's parallel scenario that happened with John Hunter Nemechek and implied that the penalty applied to that too, with his logic.

"What my brother did to John Hunter was the same exact thing. Now you’re in, like, a courtroom. You may have or you could have, like, you change one little word in a sentence, but to have Preece penalized and not my brother. I mean, I have no problem saying it!” 

Currently, the #8 RCR driver is walking on thin ice, as NASCAR has issued a warning for future incidents like these. 

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco