Kyle Busch has been suspended from racing in Saturday’s Nationwide Series event and Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.  Busch was responsible for deliberately causing a violent collision during a race with driver Ron Hornaday Jr.  Read more after the jump.
NASCAR president Mike Helton announced the penalty Saturday morning at the TMS media center. The action was taken after Busch deliberately wrecked Ron Hornaday Jr. under caution during the Camping World Truck Series event Friday night at TMS, turning Hornaday’s truck head-on into the wall and causing a violent collision.
Busch was parked for the remainder of the trucks race.
“After a good deal conversation and discussion, NASCAR decided to maintain the parked position for the balance of the weekend,” Helton said. “Kyle will not be participating today and tomorrow in Texas.”
Michael McDowell will drive the No. 18 Toyota Cup car for Sunday’s race. Denny Hamlin, Busch’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, will drive the No. 18 Nationwide car Saturday.
Busch was informed of NASCAR’s decision in a meeting at the NASCAR hauler in the TMS garage 20 minutes before Helton spoke to the media. Team owner Joe Gibbs and J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, also attended the media. Busch left the hauler out a side door and did not speak to the media.
The incident Friday night came early in the event, when Hornaday and Busch were racing for position. Hornaday was in the middle of a three-wide situation on the track when he bumped into Busch’s truck on the outside.
Hornaday’s truck got loose and bumped Busch again, forcing Busch’s truck to scrape the outside wall. The caution flag came out, but Busch sped up to push his truck on the rear bumper of Hornaday’s truck.
He continued to push Hornaday under caution at a high rate of speed before turning Hornaday’s truck into the wall. Busch’s truck also slammed into the wall.
“The fact that we took this step speaks of the severity of the topic,” Helton said. “We understand the ripple effect to this type of move. But we take our responsibility very serious about maintaining control of the event.”
