Kyle Busch Suspended: Why NASCAR Must Come Down Harder on Reckless Drivers

Kyle Busch was suspended on Saturday for driving like a maniac during Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Good.

He needed to be suspended for what he was doing.

Busch was acting under what he thought was the old “Boys, have at it” policy that NASCAR has been operating under for the better part of the past two years, and decided to hit Ron Hornaday Jr. head on into the outside wall.

NASCAR has traditionally been letting drivers retaliate for getting bumped or other aggressions on the track without reprimanding them.

But with all of these recent fatal accidents in motorsports, including Dan Wheldon, Marco Simoncelli and Jim McNeil, the sport needs to crack down on aggressive driving and make their competitions as safe as possible for everyone involved.

This is a good first step to getting drivers to reconsider before doing something stupid that could endanger a number of competitors on the track just because they are angry for being bumped.

It seems that NASCAR’s governing body is ready to rescind the ‘have-at-it-boys’ policy after what happened on Friday night.

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"When we gave the responsibility back to the drivers, there was a clear understanding that a line could be crossed," NASCAR president Mike Helton said Saturday. "As annoying as this is to hear, we've always said we would know it when we see it. We saw it last night."

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The sport is under a magnifying glass right now for safety issues, and they could not let something like this happen without a major repercussion.

No one will soon forget what happened to Dan Wheldon or any of the other men who have passed away in racing, and these safety precautions and suspensions are necessary to maintain the safety and integrity of NASCAR and other racing sports.