SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Only a few days after saying, “It doesn’t matter what I think,” upon exiting the Pocono Raceway care center last Sunday (July 14), Kyle Busch set the record straight on his run-in with Corey LaJoie during his mid-week appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
“Instead of just blending in behind me and making sure that he doesn’t crash the whole field, [LaJoie] just clips me,” Busch said. “That’s like, stupid. What are we doing? We’re going 190 miles an hour into that corner, and we’re going to wreck each other?”
LaJoie spoke to the media, including Frontstretch, on pit road following the end of Pocono and also shared his side of the story on his Stacking Pennies podcast. And while LaJoie tried to reach out to Busch, it appears that Busch had already made up his mind on what really went down during the now-infamous five-wide run into turn 1.
“He texted me and then he called me,” Busch said. “I didn’t even reach back out because he changed his story four times. So I’m like, ‘You’re just a liar. You wrecked me.’ Like I get it, it’s fine. Whatever. Payback’s coming.”
During Saturday’s (July 20) media sessions at Indianapolis Motor Speedway following Brickyard 400 qualifying, however, Busch was ho-hum toward the questions regarding LaJoie, the Pocono crash or his comments on McAfee’s show, as he either gave a blunt answer to tried dodging the question all together.
Q: Have you talked with LaJoie the last day or two?
Busch: Nope.
There’s a lot of ways to pay somebody back, just not giving them room, taking them out. Can you expand on that at all?
Nope.
Do you think he wrecked you on purpose, that he was sending you, or that he just messed up just trying to bump you?
I don’t know, ask him.
Any concern about saying publicly when you’re going to be doing retribution, or anything like that, and putting it out there so NASCAR knows?
It is what it is.
Do you feel like you’re backed into a corner to where you have to respond on the track?
No, I don’t feel like I’m being backed into a corner, or I have to respond. Racing’s racing, stuff happens.
Is this like one more log on the fire, just adding to the frustration?
What?
The past week.
Uh … sure.
No matter what Busch does or does not say about LaJoie, it’s clear that the rift between the two drivers is far from over.
About the author
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly columns include “Stat Sheet” and “4 Burning Questions.” He also writes commentary, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.