For Kyle Busch, everything is great.
That was the refrain repeated several times at Phoenix Friday afternoon after he and Joey Logano were called to the principal’s office. The purpose was to discuss the events that took place during and after Sunday’s race in Las Vegas, hoping all parties could move forward from the fracas that made national news.
For anyone who spent the past five days out of the loop, Busch made a sudden move in front of Logano on the final lap. Logano then made contact with Busch, which sent the M&M’s Toyota spinning. Afterwards, on pit road, Busch swung at Logano and was promptly swarmed by the No. 22 crew. He emerged with a bloody forehead before both sides were separated by race officials.
After the meeting, each driver emerged from the NASCAR hauler separately. Logano maintained that the contact was not intentional and his Team Penske provided data which reflected that.
“I was able to show him that and it was pretty clear, in my opinion, what happened,” he claimed. “It was an honest mistake, it was hard racing at the end. I hope [Busch] was able to see that and know I was sincere about it.”
Logano’s rival wasn’t quite so forthcoming. Busch’s only answer during a quick, 40-second impromptu presser after the meeting was, “Everything is great. I’m looking forward to a fantastic weekend here in Phoenix.” It was a generic response to a wide variety of questions about the incident and the past few days.
Clearly, whether Busch was accepting of Logano’s explanation or not remained a mystery. The only fact we know for certain is neither side will be fined for the melee under NASCAR’s “Boys, have at it” policy.
NASCAR Executive Vice President Steve O’Donnell emerged from the meeting reiterating just where that line was. Fists are fine but anything more in terms of on-track contact will cause a problem for all involved going forward.
“We’re very clear that we’re not going to allow a car to be used as a weapon,” O’Donnell said. “We didn’t see that in this case. We looked at this as good, hard racing. That’s when we will react – if there’s an intentional something that happens on the racetrack, we’ll have to react.”
Frank Velat has been an avid follower of NASCAR and other motorsports for over 20 years. He brings a blend of passionate fan and objective author to his work. Frank offers unique perspectives that everyone can relate to, remembering the sport's past all the while embracing its future.
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