There were plenty of single car incidents during the Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend; but there were also a couple of fisti-cuffs NASCAR style with Kyle Busch and John Hunter Nemechek and Ryan Preece and Ty Gibbs “getting into it”.
Of the four drivers only Ryan Preece caught the attention of NASCAR officials and was issued a penalty.
Citing Sections 4.3 and 4.4.A of the NASCAR Rule book – list “wrecking or spinning another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from competition as a result -; as a result, NASCAR officials issued a “behavioural penalty” to Ryan Preece – the driver of the RFK number 60 car – that resulted in a $50,000 fine and being docked 25 driver points that drops him one spot in the point standings down to 13th.
On lap 101 of the race, it appeared that Preece make contact with the number 54 car of Ty Gibbs in turn three; sending Gibbs into the wall and out of the race. Preece radioed his team saying that he did not touch Gibbs.
However, Preece took exception over an aggressive move made by Gibbs in stage one of the race with Preece saying over the radio, “what a [expletive] idiot that kid is. He is so lucky his car is so [expletive] fast. … All right, when I get to that 54, I’m done with him. [Expletive] idiot.”
Preece gave his side of the story in an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “Late Shift” Monday night with a long winded explanation saying, “there are people that you know you can race with respect around and cut breaks to. Like I can think of multiple times yesterday that instead of putting another driver in a pretty tough spot, you make the decision not to do that. And I feel like I just grew up racing against people that I learned that lesson a long, long time ago, when I was a lot younger. And sometimes I question if those same lessons are learned by the time you get to Cup.”
He continued, “so for me, it was more along the lines of he pretty much was very close to clear getting into (Turn) three, and I could lift, but I didn’t.”
He concluded, “I was right there and I felt like he came down, and I was not going to cut him a break because in the past, him and I have had problems. So I’ve got a little bit of a short fuse with him and I, with how we’re racing. And that was just one of those situations that, could I cut him a break? Probably could have, but I didn’t. And ultimately, I didn’t feel like I hit him. I felt like I stayed right on him, and he got loose, and from there on, unfortunately, he wrecked.”
During their Hauler Talk podcast, NASCAR explained their side of the story and why Ryan Preece was the only driver that was issued a penalty.
NASCAR vice president of race communications Mike Forde noted that Preece’s remarks on the radio was a factor in their decision to punish Preece; saying, “we do look at all available resources, whether that’s the video, in-car audio, SMT data. And really what this came down to is … (Preece) said what he said, and then he did what he said. And so in our view, it was intentionally wrecking another vehicle.”
Preece and RFK Racing can appeal the penalty.
As for why Kyle Busch was not issued a penalty…Forde noted that the SMT data was “inconclusive”; noting that the handling on Busch’s number eight car had been altered due to a previous encounter with John Hunter Nemechek and the number 42 car.
Forde said, “the SMT data is largely what played a role for us in this decision.”
NASCAR vice president of competition Elton Sawyer added, “the data told us that after the incident, (Busch) was turning the wheel all the way left just to go straight. So we had a feeling that he had some pretty significant damage. And it was inconclusive on if that was a damaged vehicle that caused (Busch) to get into (Nemechek), or if it was intentional. There were zero things that, in our opinion, said he did this intentionally, and it rose to the level of penalty. So that’s why we landed on no penalty.”
There was also a lack of retribution radio remarks from Busch.
However, after two tussles in four races NASCAR officials will be having a chat with Kyle Busch and car owner Richard Childress over Busch’s on track encounters.