kyle busch

Kyle Busch at Infineon in 2011You know what they say, it only takes a few to ruin it for the many.

It seems that after a few incidents with Kyle Busch, NASCAR is pondering the “Boys have at it” stance, and trying to determine where the line should be drawn when it comes to letting the drivers settle things amongst themselves.

It wasn’t just Kyle Busch, but also incidents with Brian Vickers “fencing” Tony Stewart onto a pile of tires at Infineon an then again, Vickers raging vendetta against Matt Kenseth at Martinsville.  (If you remember that race, that was a pretty piss-poor move on Vickers part… blatant and arrogant.)

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NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton feels that generally speaking, the self-policing policy is working.  It would only be the intent of a few that are making headlines from the sport.

He also pointed out that he’s also aware of differences like retaliations at a small track vs a high-speed track, and takes everything into consideration.

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At one point, drivers weren’t sure where the line lay, as far as having gone too far with their need for retaliation.

Common sense says one thing, but in the height of competition, it can become an entirely different beast.

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Kurt BuschThe Busch Brothers News and Notes: Kurt Driving for Kyle and observations on other Busch NASCAR news.

Kurt Busch landed on his feet, or at least, got himself a ride with Phoenix Racing for the NASCAR 2012 season.  Meaning, he found a team brave enough to take him on, hoping he’s learned his lesson from his Penske experience.

One of his sponsors with Phoenix Racing, for a few races at least, is his sunglasses manufacturer, Tag Heuer Eyewear.  Kurt Busch has a personal-services agreement with the organization, so this seems like a nice extension of the their business partnering.

Tag Heuer will be on Kurt’s car in the Shootout (as primary sponsor) and the Daytona 500 and Kobalt Tools 400 in Las Vegas, where they will be an associate sponsor.

Obsevation:  Has anyone noticed that in most every news piece or interview, Kurt keeps calling this opportunity “fun” to be in.  Do you think that’s truly the case, that he’s having fun, having to make do with a non-premiere team.  When I hear about Kurt’s “fun” on his new team, I can’t help but think about the Limp Bizkit lyric goes,

Cause your mouth’s writing checks that your *** can’t cash

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54th Annual Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race

Softer springs, smaller spoilers, smaller radiators, new fuel system and a no-talk rule are all the new rage in NASCAR for this 2012 season…  is everyone ready for some racin’?  I know I sure am…  NASCAR has always been good to me, and the folks within the industry are just awesome to deal with, so bring it ON!

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With the Daytona 500 only 45 days away, well, one of the longest sportings seasons is about to get back underway, and it started with PreSeason Thunder as the teams got to get out on the track and test the new scenarios they’ll be up against when the 2012 NASCAR season commences once again.

Jeff Gordon paced the morning pack today in practice hitting a lap speed of 192.773 as everyone got on-track and practiced their solo and two-car runs, to see how things are going to shake out.

Daytona Preseason Thunder - Day 1 - Kyle Busch in the No. 18 M&M's Toyota

Kyle Busch, with Joey Logano tailing him, paced the afternoon pack with a 202.402 speed.

And not to mention, how the new fuel injected systems are going to work for the gang.

As teams hit up the track, this is the race, the Super Bowl of NASCAR.  Sure, it’s the first race of the season, but it’s a storied track and many important events have taken place here, in Daytona Beach, Florida.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr during Daytona Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway on January 12, 2012

Coming into today, everyone was looking to get a feel for the smaller spoiler, smaller radiator & larger restrictor plate!  And I presume, they were also possibly playing around with the new radio rule, which is no more chatter between drivers in a race.

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NASCAR News and opinion from NASCAR BITS & PIECES on Brusimm.comFind out who won a few NASCAR Loopies awards, how many years Sprint has renewed their title sponsorship for and the specials on SPEED that are focused on the NASCAR HoF inductees!

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I have a collection of press releases sitting in my inbox so I thought I’d share some of these items.

Sprint Extends Their Contract

First up, NASCAR and Sprint have extended their relationship with each other, through the year of 2016.  And that’s a good thing, considering how some sponsors aren’t fully committing to sponsorships within the sport.

So to Sprint, thank you for re-upping and remaining the entitlement partner to NASCAR.

Sprint Nextel has been the NASCAR title sponsor since February of 2004.

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NASCAR’s Loopies

NASCAR has put together what they call The Loopies, or their fifth annual Best-Of-Loop Data from the 2011 season.  That’s right, the statistical look at some milestones in on-track performance.

And they added a new category that is funny and interesting, that has to do with Brad Keselowski.

But first some simple Loop stats:

“There were 131,989 green flag passes this season, the most since NASCAR started recording the stat in 2005. Though not Loop Data, there were also an average of 27.1 lead changes and 12.8 leaders per race, both Cup Series records.”

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NASCAR News and opinion from NASCAR BITS & PIECES on Brusimm.comAfter last weeks NASCAR debacle with Kyle Busch, the world is in an uproar and being split in half.  There are those that had no problem with what he’s done or his tactical behavior leading up to that, (aka, his fans) and there are those that never took to his ways and more or less, hate Kyle Busch.  Nah, that’s a strong word.  How about, have no tolerance for Kyle Busch’s practices.

Now today, it was announced that Kyle’s NASCAR Nationwide Series sponsor, Z-Line, asked Joe Gibbs Racing to replace Busch with Denny Hamlin in the Nationwide series finale race at Homestead.

I know it’s only one sponsor, and this isn’t related, but it’s starting to feel like a Tiger Woods thing all over again with how sponsors have to worry about their bottom line.

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Then today on SiriusXM, Dave Moody started talking about Z-Line’s Facebook page.  It seems that, per a non-scientific survey done by Dave Moody, 50% of the comments on the Facebook wall say,

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A NASCAR Bits & Pieces opinion piece:

Kyle Busch wrecks Ron Hornaday Jr

Classic fans of the latest NASCAR policy of letting the “Boys have at it” echoes back to the classic days when drivers policed themselves.  It’s a practice I completely approve of, but when handled properly.  Of course, in between the spats, we have new races each weekend to make more spats!

But all joking aside, emotions run high in any sport and this isn’t isolated to onl NASCAR .

First Daytona 500 breaks out into a fightOf late, boys having at it involves sheet metal and I mean lots of sheet metal.  I’m going to try not to pull up my favorite examples of that, because if you’re a regular around these parts, you know my premise comes from how Carl dumped on Brad for an entire season, for whatever the reason.

But in the old days, having it it meant that when a driver did stupid things out on the track, other drivers would have a “conversation” with “that” driver in the garage, and more than likely, the stupid driver would not be so stupid in future events.

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Kyle Busch wrecks Ron Hornaday Jr

I know it’s hard to believe, but there was a race or two that took place after Kyle Busch‘s over-reacting dump of Ron Hornaday Jr. in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

After being parked for the weekend, NASCAR has gone ahead and fined Kyle Busch $50k and has placed him on probation for the rest of the year, until December 31st, 2011.

If during the rest of the season, Kyle Busch does anything that…

“is deemed by NASCAR officials as detrimental to stock car racing or to NASCAR, or is disruptive to the orderly conduct of an event…”

He could be suspended indefinitely by NASCAR.  This, I presume, will over over Kyle for all three series.

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- Kyle Busch‘s NASCAR weekend has been an eventful one, with a huge impact on Kyle Busch and all his teams, from his NASCAR Truck Series team, his Nationwide racing endeavors and his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team with Joe Gibbs Racing.

M&Ms Facebook AccountAnd to think, all he had to do was just show a little bit of displeasure and leave a little paint on the back bumper of Ron Hornaday’s truck.  But instead, Kyle Busch did what, well, what the Busch’s do, and that’s lose it.

And now, M&M’s has pitched in their two cents on the situation.

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As almost everyone knows, during the NASCAR Truck Series race Friday night, Ron Hornaday Jr.‘s truck got a little loose and slipped up into Kyle Busch’s truck.

At that point it was just a racing incident.  Nothing more.  A few fenders were scuffed up but nothing that was a show stopper.  It was all repairable damage and would have been a small sound byte from the weekend.  But Kyle got mad and took retribution by hooking Hornaday’s truck into the outside wall, destroying it.

Kyle Busch wrecks Ron Hornaday Jr

Had Kyle not driven the truck into the wall, this might have been a slightly different story.  But Kyle’s own quote was that he had been tired of getting wrecked every weekend and snapped.

Bad call Kyle.

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Kyle Busch & Ron Hornaday Jr. Texas wreckEveryone in the NASCAR world knows that Kyle Busch snapped during the NASCAR Camping World Series Truck Series race Friday night and sent Ron Hornaday Jr. into the wall after being slightly clipped by him.  It sent fans into a tizzy, with comments ranging from tolerant understanding to cries of “foul,” he could have killed someone.

Some found it curious that Kyle Busch, right after the on-track incident, was also pointing the finger at Hornaday,  saying he didn’t need to go three-wide in the 15th lap.  I don’t think anyone was buying that.

Regardless, what’s happened has happened.

Something to Ponder

Kyle’s actions are being considered, based on the results of his action, not necessarily the deed itself.

Had he just spun Hornaday down into the infield, this entire story could have gone in a different direction.  At least that’s how some feel that I spoke with, and that is a pretty good point.  Maybe he would have been parked for Friday night, and then again, maybe not.

Instead, Busch’s actions effectively drove Ron Hornaday Jr.’s truck nose first into the outside wall.  It destroyed the truck and destroyed a championship contending driver’s hopes for the year.

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NASCAR News and opinion from NASCAR BITS & PIECES on Brusimm.comThis weekend, we have the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Camping World Truck Series leagues hitting up Talladega Superspeedway.  Specifically, we’re looking at the Cup Series winding down and who will win the championship.  I have schedules, some thoughts, then point standings and at the bottom, some Talladega-specific stats for the top-12 spots.

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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

  • Next Race: Good Sam Club 500
  • The Place: Talladega Superspeedway
  • The Date: Sunday, Oct. 23
  • The Time: 2:00 p.m. (ET)
  • TV: ESPN, 1 p.m. (ET)
  • Radio: MRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90
  • Distance: 500 miles (188 laps)

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NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

  • The Race: Coca Cola 250 Powered by Fred’s
  • The Place: Talladega Superspeedway
  • Date: Saturday, Oct. 22
  • The Time: 4 p.m. (ET)
  • TV: SPEED, 3:30 p.m. (ET)
  • Radio: MRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90
  • Distance: 250.04 miles (94 laps)

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Jimmie Needs to Points Race (Play if Safe)

Coming into the superspeedway, Carl Edwards has a five-point lead over Kevin Harvick coming into Talladega, and Jimmie Johnson‘s mistake that put him into a wall at Charlotte dropped him five spots, down into 8th, and 35 points out of first.  If Talladega strikes at him like it does when those big wrecks happen, we could be writing off Jimmie Johnson’s chances for the NASCAR title for 2011.

Carl Edwards Should Worry

Coming into Talladega, Edwards has the points lead, but this track does not like him.  Looking at Loop Data, this is his worse track, with a driver rating of 67.8, an average finish of 20th.

But that’s how dancing with this track can be.  And it can be ugly to points leaders:

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