NASCAR Facing a Critical Test in How It Handles Kurt Busch Allegations
This is a big week for NASCAR.
Last Sunday, Kevin Harvick won at the Phoenix International Raceway to join Joey Logano, Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin in the last round of the Chase. Next Sunday, someone will be crowned the 2014 Sprint Cup champion.
There's also another thing: Kurt Busch, the 36-year-old Stewart-Haas driver who won the Chase back in 2004, is being investigated for domestic assault.
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Just a few months after the video of NFL running back Ray Rice assaulting his then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, became public and the issue of athletes and domestic violence landed under the microscope, NASCAR is now on the clock.
One thing is for sure: It has plenty of examples of what not to do.
The NFL botched the handling of the Rice case, while the Carolina Panthers allowed defensive lineman Greg Hardy to play a game this season even after being found guilty of domestic assault. As well, the United States women's national soccer team has permitted goalkeeper Hope Solo to continue playing despite her pending domestic violence trial.
Given those situations, NASCAR would be smart to get out in front of this one.
By conducting its own investigation and punishing Busch independently if appropriate, NASCAR executives can show that they take domestic violence seriously.
Before we go any further, let's review what we know right now. Busch's former girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll, alleges he abused her in his motorhome at Dover International Speedway on September 26. They had recently broken up.
Driscoll's son, who is the subject of a custody dispute with her ex-husband, was at the motorhome with her at the time of the incident, Driscoll's attorney Mark Dycio told Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press.
ESPN.com relayed Driscoll's allegations, as stated in court documents she filed:
"The documents, filed Wednesday, say Busch was despondent the night of Sept. 26 after his poor performance at the qualifying session.
"He was verbally abusive to her and said he wished he had a gun so that he could kill himself," the documents say.
Driscoll said Busch, 36, called her names and accused her of "having spies everywhere and having a camera on the bus to watch him." He then jumped up, grabbed her face and smashed her head three times against the wall next to the bed, Driscoll says in the documents.
Driscoll says she pushed Busch away and ran from the bedroom, going to a nearby bus to put an ice pack on her head and neck. She said the incident caused her severe pain, difficulty breathing and bruising on her neck.
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Driscoll brought the allegations to police in Delaware last Wednesday, November 5, and the incident became public on Friday, November 7. Busch drove in the race Sunday in Phoenix, finishing seventh.
No charges have been filed yet, though an investigation is ongoing. Busch has not talked to reporters but has denied all allegations through his lawyer, Rusty Hardin. (Hardin also represents NFL running back Adrian Peterson, recently involved in off-field allegations of his own.) Via Jeff Gluck of USA Today, Hardin released the following statement:
"This allegation is a complete fabrication by a woman who has refused to accept the end of a relationship and Mr. Busch vehemently denies her allegations in every respect. At this time we intend to have no further comment in the media out of respect for the Dover Police Department's desire to conduct a thorough investigation without a media circus.
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Team co-owner Gene Haas has also issued a statement saying that he will not be pulling Busch out of his car:
Busch is, of course, innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the law. However, it's no secret that the law doesn't always operate swiftly, and that the criminal justice system is a tough one to navigate for victims of domestic and sexual assault.
This is where NASCAR comes in. Unlike the NFL, NASCAR needs to be proactive rather than reactive when dealing with Busch.
The NFL blew it when dealing with domestic violence cases this year, most notably Rice and Hardy.
Rice's case was unique because from the very beginning there was a video. Even before the public actually saw Rice hit Palmer, the video of him haphazardly dragging her unconscious body out of the elevator was made public. So despite the fact that Palmer dropped her charges and married Rice, the NFL had to act.
Commissioner Roger Goodell and his office launched their own investigation—which we now know was far from thorough—and ended up giving Rice a paltry two-game suspension. It wasn't until the in-elevator video emerged in September that the outcry caused them to change that punishment to an indefinite suspension, which Rice is appealing now.
Hardy, meanwhile, was found guilty of domestic violence by a judge over the summer, but because he was appealing the ruling, he was at first allowed to continue to play for the Carolina Panthers. Both the league and the Panthers organization tried to sweep it all under the rug, saying they were letting the legal process play out.
Once the Rice video became public and the scrutiny intensified, the Panthers placed Hardy on the commissioner's exempt list, where he is not allowed to play but is still receiving his $13.1 million salary. Peterson, indicted on child abuse charges, landed on that list as well.
The NFL isn't alone, though. The USWNT has also been intensely criticized for its decision to allow Hope Solo to continue to play goalie as she awaits her trial on charges of domestic assault against her nephew, with Solo's former teammate Jillian Loyden writing in USA Today, "I believe that individuals are innocent until proven guilty, but in failing to take action against players' behavior off the field, the league is not living up to its responsibilities."
NASCAR has not had nearly as many public accusations of domestic violence as the NFL and other leagues have; perhaps because of that, it does not have a clear policy on domestic violence. Last year, Sprint Cup driver Travis Kvapil was charged with assaulting his wife and spent a night in jail. He raced the following weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway and eventually settled out of court and was therefore never suspended by NASCAR.
Kvapil wasn't as popular of a driver as the older Busch brother, and last year the spotlight on domestic violence wasn't nearly as bright. Things are undeniably different now, and NASCAR needs to create a policy that can appropriately deal with such incidents.
To begin, NASCAR needs to stop saying that it is simply going to let the police take it from here and conduct its own independent investigation. As we learned with the Rice case, it's crucial to be unbiased and thorough when looking into such serious reports.
If charges are brought and/or NASCAR finds enough legitimacy in Driscoll's claims in its independent investigation, the organization needs to hand down its own discipline to Busch. It is standard for many organizations to put employees on leave when they are being investigated for legal matters, and this should not be any different in athletics.
But most importantly, NASCAR needs to prove to its fans that it takes domestic violence seriously. One in four women will be a victim of domestic violence in her lifetime, and undoubtedly, some of those victims will be tuning in Sunday when the season concludes at Homestead-Miami. Perhaps NASCAR could follow the NFL's lead and air public service announcements against domestic violence during its broadcast, or work with charities to make sure money is going to the proper organizations.
The sport could make a huge impact by giving the cause the attention it deserves rather than ignoring it completely, no matter what happens with Busch's case going forward.
NASCAR may think the worst thing that could happen this week is for the allegations against Busch to overshadow the exciting season-ending action Sunday, but that's far from the truth. NASCAR is popular, and the Chase has been exciting. The show will go on, and fans will show up.
Instead, the worst thing that can happen is for NASCAR to do nothing. The information on this case will leak out eventually, and especially in a post-Rice climate, it will be inexcusable for NASCAR to have done nothing if Driscoll's accusations have merit.
The world is watching to see how NASCAR responds. The best thing it can do for its fans and sponsors is to act now rather than later.
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