NASCAR officials react to Kyle Busch calling out DVP policy, correct him

Tensions flared between Kyle Busch and NASCAR following a wreck that briefly sidelined Busch from the field and forced his car into the garage, where this year’s new damaged vehicle policy came into play.

Busch and his team, after a brief evaluation in the garage, felt they were in good enough shape to return to the race.

But after a brief back and forth, Kyle Busch’s car was sidelined from the race. It’s unclear exactly when the ruling came down or how, and the confusion over the process caused Busch to lash out at NASCAR.

NASCAR responded in kind.

“It’s a new rule and it’s probably going to take some getting used to, but this is a rule that was reiterated a few times during speed week stuff,” NASCAR’s managing director of communications Mike Forde said on the Hauler Talk podcast. “There was a lot of time spent on this particular piece of the rule.”

The crux of the matter: You only get one re-entry attempt after going to the garage, and Kyle Busch’s car did not make a full re-entry attempt before returning to the garage a second time around.

That sidelined him for the finish of the race.

Forde noted that NASCAR had multiple learning sessions for drivers and crew chiefs on the new rule and stated that policy should have been clear.

“That message didn’t get to Kyle,” Forde said. “There were drivers who came in and asked that question. So Kyle came out of the media center and ripped NASCAR without knowing the rule. Didn’t feel like he got enough, then ripped us on X. Crew chief did come to our managing director of the NASCAR Cup Series, Brad Moran, and say, ‘My bad, we did get that wrong.’ Randall Burnett and Brad had that conversation, that did happen, so.”

It seems, more than anything, that there was some miscommunication between Kyle Busch and NASCAR officials over the policy during the race.

Speaking after the race, Busch sounded confused on where he should have headed.

“I had four flat tires out there and we have these air-jack systems in the car, mandatory by NASCAR, and the guy carries an empty air bottle to plug up to the car,” Kyle Busch said. “So couldn’t plug it up so I could make my own return back to pit road. Said I just wanted a push, so they decided for three laps to figure out how to hook it up to tow us back in. Towed us into a work area where our guys reviewed the car, looked over the car, didn’t see anything massively wrong. All the wheels were pointed in the right direction. We put four new tires on it to go back out to basically see what the next process was going to be for us.

“And then was told that if you need to work on it and repair it you’ve got to go back to that place. But if you go back to that place, they park you. So what are we supposed to do to continue to work on it now that we’ve got four new tires on it and all the wheels are pointed in the right direction?”

That’s an answer Busch and his team will almost certainly have sought more clarity on now after an unfortunate turn of events at the Daytona 500.

Forde issued one more clarifying attempt.

“So a team, take the 8 team, start working on the car, when they’re done you have one opportunity to leave the garage and reach minimum speed in three consecutive green-flag laps,” Forde said. “What the 8 car did was leave the garage and then come back. And if you come back to the garage, you’re out of the race.”