June 5, 2011
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Richard Childress will pay a price for punching Kyle Busch after Saturday’s Camping World Truck Series Race at Kansas Speedway.
NASCAR stopped short of ejecting Childress, 66, from the racetrack but restricted his movements during Sunday’s STP 400 Sprint Cup race. Though NASCAR president Mike Helton didn’t detail all the restrictions, he indicated that Childress would not be allowed on pit road.
Helton said that, in NASCAR’s judgment, Busch, 26, did not violate the terms of the probation he received after a post-race confrontation with Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick after the Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington.
Busch and Harvick both are on probation for all NASCAR events through June 15, after Harvick climbed from his car and tried to punch Busch through his car window, and Busch responded by pushing Harvick’s unattended car into the pit road wall.
During Saturday’s truck race, RCR driver Joey Coulter passed Busch for fifth place off the final corner. On the cool-down lap, Busch pulled up beside Coulter, causing slight contact between the trucks -- enough to produced smoke from the tires.
After the race, according to witnesses, Childress put Busch in a headlock and punched him three times. Because NASCAR feels that Busch’s actions didn’t warrant retaliation from Childress, the sanctioning body restricted Childress' movements at the racetrack on Sunday, with further sanctions to be announced later, perhaps as early as Monday.
On Sunday morning, NASCAR officials met with Busch, Childress and team owner Joe Gibbs, who fields the cars Busch drives.
“We’ve concluded that the driver of the No. 18 truck, Kyle Busch, did nothing to provoke or to cause the reactions that, in our opinion, would have violated probation,” Helton said Sunday before the drivers’ meeting. “He did nothing that would have warranted the actions of Richard Childress.
“Once we get (Sunday’s ) race concluded, which is the focus of today, we’ll have to decide what NASCAR’s reaction is to Richard Childress as a member of NASCAR in an action against another NASCAR member. The biggest topic (Sunday) -- certainly through the conversations outside of the incident itself -- was to be sure that today’s event went on correctly and safely for everybody involved in both the Richard Childress Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing organizations.
“We made it clear to them that our expectations are that both Joe Gibbs and Richard Childress meet with their teams to be sure that nobody from their organizations felt like there was anything that needed to done from their side.”
Busch acknowledged Sunday morning that the altercation had occurred but didn't go into detail.
“There was an incident (Saturday) in the truck series garage, as I was leaving my hauler on my way out to the motor home lot," Busch said. "Unfortuately, it was an altercation between myself and Richard, and NASCAR’s looking into it to decipher all the facts of what happened and everything and make a decision based on all that.”
Helton said NASCAR considered ejecting Childress from the racetrack but stopped short.
“That was considered in this case,” Helton said. “What will happen (Sunday) is that Richard Childress will operate as the owner of Richard Childress Racing with some restrictions attached to it, as far as where he may go or not go. But we decided to let Richard stay, because there does need to be leadership of an organization represented.
“Historically, we rely on crew chiefs, but since both organizations have multiple teams, we decided that it would be better if there was an authority from the team here, and there’s not a second level authority present here from (Childress’) organization. Joe Gibbs is here from Joe Gibbs Racing, and we chose to allow Richard to participate today.”
NASCAR’s statement after Sunday’s meeting was even stronger than Helton’s comments to reporters. The statement included the following:
“Richard Childress’ actions were not appropriate and fell far short of the standard we expect of owners in this sport. We have met with Childress this morning and made our position very clear to him. Further, we expect he will make it clear to all in his organization to ensure this situation does not escalate any further. We will announce our actions regard this incident Monday.
“Kyle Busch remains on probation with NASCAR, and we continue to watch his actions carefully. However, we have determined that Kyle’s involvement in this incident does not violate his probation, and no further action is required.”Busch acknowledged Sunday morning that the altercation had occurred but didn't go into detail.
“There was an incident (Saturday) in the truck series garage, as I was leaving my hauler on my way out to the motor home lot," Busch said. "Unfortuately, it was an altercation between myself and Richard, and NASCAR’s looking into it to decipher all the facts of what happened and everything and make a decision based on all that.”
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