Kyle Busch demands NASCAR rule change after | Sports News

NASCAR star Kyle Busch has called on the governing body to change the rules following Team Penske driver Austin Cindric’s penalty for an incident involving Ty Dillon at Circuit of The Americas last weekend. Cindric was handed a $50,000 fine and had 50 points deducted for the rear-right hook on Dillon and it has attracted plenty of attention.

However, Busch believes Cindric may have avoided further punishment, which could go up to a suspension due to his last name. Busch appeared to reference Cindric’s father, Tim, who is the President of Team Penske.

The two-time Cup Series winner recalled his own experience and that of other drivers, such as Bubba Wallace, who received a suspension for a similar incident in 2022. “I did it once and maybe twice, got off with it the first time, but definitely not the second time,” Busch told FOX.

“Sat out a whole weekend, two more races the second time. You know that’s not his first offence, I don’t know if it’s his second offence. Like I said, some guys get off on based off who I think their last name is.

“Yeah, I mean, Bubba got it [a suspension], right? At Vegas. I got it before so, I think there’s a couple of other guys who have got it… Yeah.”

“Put it in the rulebook: A right hook will result in a one-race suspension. Period,” Busch added. Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft, also hit out at Cindric’s punishment on social media.

Kraft questioned NASCAR’s decision, responding to the NASCAR insider Jeff Gluck’s announcement of Cindric’s penalty. “Jeff can you please ask for a MPH range that we are now allowed to right hook someone? Asking for 36 friends,” Kraft said.

Mike Forde, NASCAR managing director of racing communications, clarified that Cindric wasn’t suspended due to the race being on a road course, with lower speeds and tighter restrictions. Cindric and Dillon’s incident didn’t bring out a caution flag either.

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“The reason we landed on the points and fine is we take every situation and every violation as its own unique incident, and I know fans probably don’t love hearing that, but it’s said because it’s true,” Forde said. “Sure, we do look at past instances to help educate ourselves on how we should handle each subsequent one, but each incident is very different.

“In this case, we did feel that it was significantly different than the previous two. And the reasons are it is at a road course with lower speeds to begin with, and the results didn’t even draw a caution flag. So those were really the reasons why we chose to err on the side of letting (Cindric) race this weekend in Phoenix with a fine and a significant driver points penalty.

“When I hit social media after this penalty is announced, my guess is that there is going to be several people who feel this is the wrong call. And it may not be the popular call, but when we look at penalties, we do not really care how popular we are. We try to do the right thing here.”