NASCAR handed down a penalty to RFK Racing driver Ryan Preece on Tuesday following an on-track incident involving Ty Gibbs on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 60 was fined $50,000 and docked 25 driver points for intentionally wrecking Gibbs.
Meanwhile, in what looked to be a similar incident, NASCAR chose not to penalize Kyle Busch following an on-track incident with John Hunter Nemechek. With two laps to go in Sunday’s race, contact with Nemechek sent Busch into the wall.
In what looked like a retaliation move, Busch door-slammed into the side of Nemechek in turn three, sending the latter crashing.
NASCAR executive explains Preece penalty, no penalty for Busch
NASCAR’s Mike Forde explained the sport’s reasoning behind a penalty for Preece, but not one for Busch.
In the explanation pulled by FOX motorsports reporter Bob Pockrass on X, Forde said NASCAR viewed Preece’s wreck as intentional. The decision was made due to Preece’s radio communications during the race, making it known he wanted to crash Gibbs.
Forde cited a similar incident involving Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin at Phoenix in 2023, where Hamlin said he was going to purposefully wreck Chastain, and did so.
With the points penalty, Preece drops from 12th to 13th in the standings and is now 38 points above the Chase cut line, after previously being 63 points above.
In turn, Busch avoided a penalty. As explained by Forde, there was no sufficient evidence that the driver of the No. 8 intentionally wrecked Nemechek after looking at SMT data.
Given that Busch’s car was damaged after the initial contact, too, Forde left reason to believe that Busch did not intentionally wreck Nemechek.
However, Forde added that Brad Moran will have a chat with Busch this week about his recent string of aggressive driving. Forde said it is the second time in a month that they gave Busch “the benefit of the doubt” regarding an on-track incident.
A few weeks ago at Bristol, Busch had an on-track incident with Riley Herbst, where it appeared the Richard Childress Racing driver intentionally wrecked Herbst. However, like the Texas incident, no penalty was handed down.
Denny Hamlin, Steve Letarte’s differing opinions on Busch incident
Many in the NASCAR industry had differing opinions on the Busch and Nemechek Texas incident.
One of those who sounded off about the controversy was Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, who called Busch’s move “unacceptable” on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast.
“What happened in turn three was certainly unacceptable,” Hamlin said.
Meanwhile, former NASCAR Cup Series crew chief and current analyst Steve Letarte had a different viewpoint on the incident. Given the SMT data provided, Letarte could not say whether Busch’s actions were intentional or not.
“What’s very hard to tell is was it purposeful. If I look at brake pressure as well, the 8 steps on the brake and then steps on the brake again. Everybody can have an opinion whether it was purposeful or not. I can tell you looking at the driver date itself, it’s impossible for me to tell,” Letarte said.
Whether it was intentional or not, the bottom line is that Busch will not be penalized by NASCAR, while Preece has been penalized. The differing decisions will surely be a topic of conversation in the NASCAR world moving forward.
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