Kyle Busch: NASCAR Rightly Probates and Fines Driver for Losing Cool

Kyle Busch has had additional penalties levied against him besides the Saturday and Sunday suspension he received for his reckless acts on Friday night.

Good.

NASCAR fined him $50,000 and put him on probation through the end of the year.

The sport needed to heavily punish Busch for his reckless driving that wrecked Ron Hornaday Jr. in a Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. It wasn’t enough to just sit him out for a single Nationwide Series race and one Sprint Cup race.

When NASCAR put him on probation for the year, Busch was warned that if he commits any act “detrimental to stock car racing or to NASCAR, or is disruptive to the orderly conduct of an event,” he will be suspended indefinitely.

Busch will be allowed to race in this Saturday’s events at the Phoenix International Raceway, but he will certainly be under the microscope.

The driver was originally upset on Friday but changed his tune on Saturday and issued a public apology. He also apologized to his team on Sunday as he sat in the pit box and watched the Sprint Cup race.

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"I understand why I was taken out of the car for the rest of the weekend. NASCAR officials had to act, and I accept their punishment and take full responsibility for my actions," Busch wrote. "As a race car driver, the hardest thing to do is to sit on the sidelines listening to cars on the track when you know you should be out there competing. For this, I have no one to blame but myself."

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It’s good that Busch is accepting responsibility, and he needs to know that this type of driving is no longer acceptable in motorsports.

With Dan Wheldon, Marco Simoncelli and Jim McNeil having all passed away because of accidents in their respective motorsports, it’s time to crack down and make these racing sports as safe as possible.

The easiest way to do this is to highly discourage dangerous driving and intentionally trying to wreck other competitors. This is preventable, and I’m glad to see NASCAR acting swiftly and harshly against those violating their new policy.