Kyle Busch has sure had a lot of explaining to do.
And now Joe Gibbs has a lot of thinking to do.
In the aftermath of Busch’s bone-headed stunt of barreling 128 mph through a residential area marked with a 45-mph speed limit in a $350,000 sports car, Gibbs has to consider:
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What is the right thing to do now?
What is right for the Joe Gibbs Racing organization? How does this affect the team? The crew, the other drivers?
Just what do the sponsors think about this situation? What’s going through the minds of the folks at Toyota, M&M/Mars, FedEx? They sure aren’t paying to get bad publicity.
What is best for NASCAR? How do you heal the black eye this has given to the sport itself?
And what is fair to Kyle Busch? He’s racing in the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday, but what comes after? I’ve seen two suggestions in the media that he be suspended for at least one weekend of racing.
According to one of the reports, the JGR organization is looking into it. But is one weekend enough?
And finally, what is fair to the fans? The people who follow every move of their favorite driver? The folks that buy the sponsors’ products? The kids who grow up loving NASCAR because their mamas and daddies do?
Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 1 boy in the No. 18 car has made a fool of himself and a mess to be cleaned up. Gibbs is the man stuck with the job. Question is, how is he going to do it?
What do you think?
10 Comments
TAG BOWERS
O ON KYLE BUSH !!! I DO NOT KNOW COACH JOE GIBBS. HOWEWVER I DID KNOW HIS FATHER WHO WAS A NC STATE TROOPER HERE IN MOCKSVILLE NC. JOE GIBBS WAS BIORN HERE. MOST PEOPLE HERE USE TO BE PROUD OF THE FACT THAT COACH GIBBS WAS FROM HERE. BUT THATS NOT THE CASE NOW. SINCE HE TOLERATED,T THE ANTIC,S OF KYLE BUSH MOST HAVE LOST ALL RESPECT IN COACH GIBBS AND NASCAR RACING. I HAVE BEEN GOING NTO NASCAR RACES SINCE 1948. ENUFF IS ENUFF. KYLE BUSH IS GOING TO KILL HIMSELF AND POSSIBLE OTHERS. SEVERAL; YEARS AGO THERE WAS A YOUNG RACE DRIVER THAT DROVE LIKE KYLE BUSH, HE WAS KILLED IN A AUTO WRECK NEAR MOORESVIILE. MAYBE JOE GIBBS WILL WAKE UP AND DO WHATS RIGHT.
Bob
Kyle Busch made a mistake. He said he did. He was lucky, no one was hurt. He knows to never pull a stunt like that again.
There are many people that did not like Kyle, before this happen. They jumped all over it. Hoping to take away any chance he has to win the chase. That is just not going to happen. Kyle is one of the best drivers Nascar has had in many years. Nascar needs Busch. To ask Kyle to not drive in one of the Cup race. Would cost Nascar a large amount of money. But, of course there are some people without sin. That will not only cast the first stone. They will cast every stone they can get their hands on. Kyle knows he made a mistake. People need to get over it, and move on.
sharon
Bad for Toyota? The owner of the lexus is Rick Hendrick. This is good publicity for both Toyota and Hendrick. My husband had this figured out. Nobody told Kyle to go that speed but he was testing it for Rick.
Thomas Kuegler
Give him a ZR1 instead of the 400.000.00 LFA Playstation car to get a ticket in.Give Joe Gibbs and Kyle a break. He made a mistake and has owned up to it.
Melissa
Something needs to be done to calm Kyle Busch down. He is constantly doing bonehead moves which could hurt himself and most likely others. Like is move to push Kevin Harvicks car into the wall on pit lane. Now driving way to fast in a residential area. If that was me, I would have gotten a ticket, been taken to jail and lost my license.
Ron Jeske
The time has come for Gibbs Racing to sit Kyle Busch down and explain that his actions are bad for himself, the team, the image of NASCAR, and that he is setting a really bad example for young children who look for role models. The issue of whose car he was driving is irrelevant. The man was doing 128 miles per hour in a 45 zone. That is not being carried away. That is being Kyle Busch Stupid. The man can drive fast and he is aggressive and creates a show, but people die from stupid acts like his. He should be parked in the stands for a couple of weeks with no pay, his ride given to someone else for that time, and he should be made to issue a public statement about his careless and stupid act and he should be made to pay a huge fine or do a lot of community service time, like cleaning up the scenes of traffic accidents. Maybe then he will get smart, but don't bet on it.
This is not the first dustup with him and will not be the last. We can only hope that the next one will not be harmful to anyone.
Anne
The issue is not whether you're a fan or not a fan, what brand car or who owned the "toy". The issue is a person was driving wrecklessly and irresponsibly and that's illegal. The law gave him a ticket. NASCAR did nothing. Joe Gibbs...
..we don't know yet?
melvinroy
i would like to thank joe gibbs and kyle bush. i have been a loyal fan for 31 years now and never in my 31 years of goung to races or buying nascar diecast have i neven hated any driver i have dislike a few but never hated but that all has changed thank you again joe gibbs you have given me alot of free time now that i no longer will be a part of any thing that promotes this kind of behavior on and off track i thought kyle bush had alot of potental when he started raceing he has alot of talent but i canot and will not spend my weekends watching a very talented but no class spoiled brat race any longer. in short bad behavior has given me my weekends back ill take my money that i spent on die cast and races and spend it on my grandkids thank you joe and up yours kyle bush from an exloyal nascar fan
Jeff Armstrong
whether a NASCAR fan or not is NOT the issue. But abiding by the law which is for safety of self and others is. Consider- Kyle probably doesn't care about other people's kids, because he's a kid himself. But what about his wife? My family and I live off of Perth Road where he was clocked at 128 mph. It is a residential area. And there are a lot of families that live off of it. The neighborhoods adjacent to it are dangerous enough to get out of when people are going the posted/legal limit. Going 3X the limit is just plain stupid, and potentially lethal. It amazes me when certain celebrities think their status puts them above the law. And it amazes me that our local law enforcement wasn't harder on him, that NASCAR and Joe Gibbs are pretty much ignoring it, and the sponsors are side-stepping it. Don't buy: Toyota, M&M's, or use Federal Express. Pretty easy solution- huh?
pete dalla
Mr. Joe Gibbs.
Kyle Busch won't ever win you a champion ship.
He will end up killing someone with his total disrespect foR human life both on and off the track. I Will Avoid all OF JOE Gibbs sponsors on all three cars and will pray others will also.
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