NASCAR fines Kyle Busch $50,000 for Darlington safety violation
Kyle Busch's dramatic exit from Sunday's Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway has resulted in a fine from NASCAR.
Just a few laps into the second stage, Busch crashed after contact with Austin Dillon sent him into the Turn 2 wall.
Busch drove the damaged car straight to the garage, hitting orange cones and sending people scurrying out of the way as he passed by.
The sanctioning body has announced a $50,000 fine for Busch, citing Sections 12.1.a; 12.5.2.5.a; 12.8.a of the NASCAR rulebook (safety violation, actions detrimental to stock car racing, violating the NASCAR member conduct guidelines).
NASCAR senior vice president of competition Scott Miller spoke about the incident on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Tuesday, saying: “It was a situation that could have been bad. Fortunately, nobody got hit or anything like that. It all worked out, but putting people in harm’s way for no reason is something we take seriously.”
He finished 35th in the race. The two-time series champion is now in the elimination zone with two races remaining in the opening round of the playoffs, two points below the cut-line in 14th.
“Wasn’t (Austin Dillon's) fault," said Busch after being released from the infield care center following the incident. “Just take our lumps. We’re running like shit and we got wrecked, so that’s what you get when you run like shit. Just shouldn’t be back there. I don’t know what our problem is.”
Busch continued, telling NBCSN: “Every time I go to sim and think we have a good sim session, we go to the race track and we suck. So, I’m done with that. We’ll have to use some other tools on figuring out how to be good. The M&M’s Camry wasn’t good and we got wrecked. It wasn’t the (No. 3 car's) fault.”
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