The Fight or Altercation or Whatever It Was

If you're a NASCAR fan, you're probably aware that there was an altercation between Richard Childress and Kyle Busch after Saturday's Truck race. I was trying to wait to say anything about it until I knew more about what happened. Finally, it looks like some facts are coming out.

Busch, who owns his own Truck team, was racing hard for fifth position with Joey Coulter, who was driving a Childress-owned truck. Coulter won the position, finishing ahead of Busch. On the cooldown lap, Busch pulled alongside Coulter and their trucks bumped.

It may or may not have been a congratulatory tap; Busch claims it was, several stories on the incident have said that Busch was showing his displeasure but I've haven't heard anything to see how they draw that conclusion. In any case, that kind of bumping is quite common on cooldown laps.

But Childress didn't like it.  He and Busch have had several disagreements over Busch damaging RCR equipment.  There has been some history between Busch and RCR drivers, most recently at Darlington with the pit road/unattended car incident.  After Saturday's Truck race, the 65-year-old Childress put the 26-year-old Busch in a headlock and punched him three times.

NASCAR president Mike Helton gave a statement Sunday morning in which he cleared Busch of any wrongdoing:  "We've concluded that the driver of the No. 18 truck, Kyle Busch, did nothing to provoke or to cause the reactions that, in our opinion, would have violated probation.  He did nothing that would have warranted the actions of Richard Childress."

Childress was not ejected from the track, but his movements were restricted during Sunday's STP 400.  He was not allowed on pit road.  It looks like more penalties might be forthcoming.  NASCAR met with Busch, Childress, and Joe Gibbs, the owner of Busch's Cup car, then issued a harsher statement than the earlier Helton statement, including...

"Richard Childress' actions were not appropriate and fell far short of the standard we expect of owners in this sport. We have met with Childress this morning and made our position very clear to him. Further, we expect he will make it clear to all in his organization to ensure this situation does not escalate any further. We will announce our actions [in] regard [to] this incident Monday.

"Kyle Busch remains on probation with NASCAR, and we continue to watch his actions carefully. However, we have determined that Kyle's involvement in this incident does not violate his probation, and no further action is required."

Busch and RCR driver Kevin Harvick are on probation until June 15 for the incident at Darlington.