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Busch vs. Stewart, Round 2
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First came a last-lap crash that sent Kyle Busch into the wall and Tony Stewart to victory lane in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 4.
Round 2 followed on Thursday at Chicagoland Speedway, when Busch hit back at Stewart.
Busch apparently believes Stewart should have been black-flagged after the two tangled on the final lap. The decisive moment came when Busch, having passed Stewart, tried to block him. Stewart faked low, then moved high on the track to make the pass. Busch blocked low, but couldn’t get high in time.
Stewart was already up to Busch’s right rear quarter panel when Busch tried to block. Instead, he was hit by Stewart, who didn’t let up off the gas. Busch was sent into the wall hard, then was hammered by trailing drivers Kasey Kahne and Joey Logano. He finished 14th.
The finish was similar to the ending at Talladega in April, when Carl Edwards was in the lead and tried to block Brad Keselowski on the final lap. Keselowski got position on the inside and when Edwards tried to block, Keselowski didn’t let up. Edwards was sent sliding and went airborne, then hit a trailing Ryan Newman before the No. 99 slammed against the catch fence on the outside of the track. Seven fans were injured, although Edwards was not hurt.
Asked if there was any way to avoid his kind of wreck again, Busch said it was up to NASCAR.
“I think NASCAR can take a step in looking at it and if the second-place driver dumps -- quote, unqoute -- the leader, then black-flag him,’’ Busch said at Chicagoland Speedway on Thursday. “He doesn’t get the win. If he’s on him from behind and moved him out of the way and there’s no wreck, then fine, he can win the race. But, if you’re up alongside a guy and you dump him, then I say black flag him and give the win to the third-place guy.’’
So, did Busch believe he was dumped by Stewart?
“It would be considered a dump,’’ Busch said.
Stewart had a different take on the incident. He said on Wednesday during a press conference at Indianapolis that he contacted Busch to clear the air.
“But when something like that happens, you want to make sure that both guys are on the same page with what happened, and we definitely were,’’ Stewart said. “I mean, there was no question on either one of our parts of what happened. I mean, we were instantly on the same page with it. It's just part of racing.
“Kyle knew that my job was to get to his quarter panel, he was trying to move up to defend his spot, and nobody in his position would have just stayed there and let somebody drive back by him. You've got to do something, and he wasn't trying to wreck us, he was just trying to make me make a move to slow me down.’’
If NASCAR wanted to avoid wrecks like that it would penalize drivers for blocking. Consider the 2008 fall at race at Talladega, when Stewart was in front of rookie Regan Smith on the final lap. Smith went low to pass and Stewart quickly moved to block. Had Smith stayed in position, Stewart would have hit Smith’s racecar and likely wrecked, giving the victory to Smith.
But Smith reacted to the block by going below the yellow line to avoid a wreck. He passed Stewart and took the checkered flag, only to have the victory taken away and awarded to Stewart.
That rewarded the driver who blocked, instead of punishing him for the move.
As for Stewart, he had no interest in adding to a controversy with Busch.
“I’ve already seen the transcripts from it,’’ Stewart said on Thursday at Chicagoland of Busch’s comments. “I talked to Kyle on I guess it was Tuesday when I spoke to Kyle and had a good conversation with him. That’s the conversation I’m going off of. That’s all I’m going to talk about Kyle.”
So will there be a Round 3? We’ll see.
