NASCAR insider gives opposing view on controversial Kyle Busch ruling at Nashville
Kyle Busch caught a break after the first overtime caution during Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.
Busch had to check up to avoid Ross Chastain after Kyle Larson sent the No. 1 car into the wall. He had nowhere to go up against the wall and could only watch as majority of the field passed him. At the time, Busch was running P4. Though he fell back in the field after the accident, NASCAR allowed Busch to come back to the front and restart fourth.
In the moment, it was a puzzling decision by NASCAR to allow Busch to keep his original spot. Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, however, didn’t take as big an issue with it as others.
“My thoughts on Busch: -I’d say he was involved in incident b/c hit wall & had damage -but also can see he maintained a reasonable speed based on track conditions -close judgment call so don’t view it as a horrible call -ended up hurting Busch since he ran into out-of-gas Larson,” Pockrass wrote on X.
NASCAR official explains controversial Kyle Busch ruling at Nashville Ally 400
Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran explained the ruling during a Tuesday appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“His spots weren’t taken away because our rule clearly states that you must maintain a reasonable speed,” Moran said. “And reasonable speed is for what track conditions are at the time. We don’t want to encourage drivers to stay on the gas and just kind of, you know, bang their way through. What (Busch) did was he avoided the incident.
“We deemed him not involved in that incident. He didn’t stop. If he had to stop, he probably would have ended up towards the back of the field, but he was scored in the fourth-place position when that caution come out. He didn’t get into [Chastain] or [Larson] and made very slight contact with the wall, so we would deem that as not being involved in that incident and that’s why he was able to restart where he was scored.”
Kyle Busch unlucky at Nashville
Unfortunately for Busch, restarting P4 turned out to be trouble for him. On the third overtime restart, Larson, running P2, ran out of fuel. Busch once again had nowhere to go and crashed out for good. Instead of picking up his first top-10 since Kansas back in May, Busch finished 27th. He’s now 104 points back of Alex Bowman for the 16th and final playoff spot and more than likely needs a win in the final seven races to qualify.
“Those cautions at the end of the race and into overtime really worked against us because we were close on fuel,” Busch said after the race. “On that last restart, we were fourth when the No. 5 [Larson] ran out of fuel just ahead of me. And I had nowhere to go. It’s frustrating for sure but we’ll bounce back next week in Chicago.”