Kyle Busch got what he deserved Saturday night in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, right?
Well, it's not quite that simple. Or at least it shouldn't be -- no matter where you stand on the Kyle Busch Love-or-Hate O-Meter.
Whether or not Busch "deserved" to get turned by race winner Tony Stewart with the checkered flag in sight is going to be a matter of great debate for days, weeks, maybe even months to come. For Busch, make that years to come.
Autostock
Coke Zero 400
Unofficial Results
Pos. Driver Make
1. Tony Stewart Chevrolet
2. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet
3. Denny Hamlin Toyota
4. Carl Edwards Ford
5. Kurt Busch Dodge
6. Marcos Ambrose Toyota
7. Brian Vickers Toyota
8. Matt Kenseth Ford
9. Juan Montoya Chevrolet
10. Elliott Sadler Dodge
- Results | Laps | Photos
There are sure to be two camps on this one -- those who feel Busch attempted to block the hard-charging Stewart once too often and a little too late, and those who feel the hard-charging Stewart was charging too hard, with little or no regard for Busch's safety and general well being.
The opinion here is that Stewart did nothing wrong and was racing for the victory, as he should have been. After Stewart took a look to the outside and was blocked once legitimately by Busch, Stewart put a second move on and clearly got his front bumper on the outside of Busch's right-rear bumper.
It's easy for a casual observer to say this -- and much harder to execute in a split second, obviously, for a driver hurtling toward the checkers at 180 or more mph -- but it was at that instant that Busch made the critical mistake of trying to place a second block on Stewart.
It was too late -- too late for Stewart to back out of the run he had on Busch, and too late for Busch to get over to effectively block him again. The end result was predictable.
Busch got turned and Stewart went on to win his second race of the season.
Calling it right
Making the call right in the TNT broadcast booth Saturday night was a Kyle by another name, as in Petty. Give him and color analyst partner Wally Dallenbach credit, too, for making the right determination in a split second -- or at least over several split seconds with the additional input of an all-important series of replays.
But they got it right when they absolved Stewart of any wrong-doing.
"Here's what happened, just like what we talked about at Talladega and have talked about before: block me once, that's OK; block me twice, you're going up into the grandstands or you're going into the wall," Petty said on the TNT race broadcast. "That's what happened. The 18 made two swipes at him -- one to the inside and one to the outside."
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Both Petty and Dallenbach quickly agreed that Busch's first attempt to block Stewart was "fair." But once Stewart got his left-front bumper on the inside of Busch's right-rear, all bets were off.
"He had that one coming," Petty said of the race-winning boot that Stewart ultimately gave Busch. "When you cut back across the hood of somebody after you've blocked him once -- and Tony put the bumper on the outside of him, he was there -- that's what is going to happen."
It immediately caused flashbacks to what happened in April at Talladega, by no coincidence the last restrictor-plate race that had been run on a superspeedway this season. That was when rookie Brad Keselowski got a run on Carl Edwards and nearly sent Edwards' No. 99 Ford flying into the frontstretch grandstands.
Autostock
Final Laps
Tony Stewart spins Kyle Busch on the final lap, to set up a spectacular wreck, and win the Coke Zero 400.
* Watch video
If you will recall, Edwards quickly stated afterward the Keselowski had done nothing wrong.
"We saw this same thing at Talladega with the No. 09 car of Keselowski. He stuck his car in there and drove it, put it where it needed to be. And that's the way it was," Petty said Saturday.
Double-standard?
Busch did not appear to be in such a forgiving move toward Stewart following Saturday night's fracas. He reportedly headed straight from the remains of his smoking carcass of a car toward Victory Lane, where it seemed he wanted a word -- and not of a congratulatory nature -- with Stewart.
As much as an altercation between the two former Joe Gibbs Racing teammates in Victory Lane might have been entertaining to the masses, it was fortunate he got intercepted by some security types who instead directed him to get checked out at the infield care center.
In his own post-race news conference, Stewart admitted that the way he had won left a mildly bad taste in his mouth. But you'd better believe that not long after he left the media center, he quickly washed that out with a swig of champagne -- or more likely, since it was Stewart, a few large gulps of a Schlitz beer, followed by more Schlitz beers.
A win is a win is a win.
One more important thing for everyone to remember here is that in the wake of Saturday's incident, there can be no double standards. The next time Kyle Busch is in position to pull the same stunt to claim victory, he has every right to do so without everyone screaming that it's a foul play.
And maybe, just maybe, these guys will start realizing that as long as the rules remain the same for restrictor-plate races, the best move of all at the end of one of these crazy deals might be to give guys a little more room to genuinely race each other to the checkered flag -- instead of "mirror racing" and concentrating so much on blocking the guy behind that you end up essentially wrecking yourself.
That's probably the largest lesson there for the taking from Saturday night. But will anyone truly take note? source>>>
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