While Chase Elliott drove to victory lane Sunday at Texas, NASCAR fans turned their attentions to a battle on track that turned into a war of words between veteran Kyle Busch and Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek. The only question left now is what, if anything, will NASCAR do about Busch’s door-slam.
After weeks of less-than-stellar results and drama off the track, Kyle Busch and his new Crew Chief, Andy Street, had a solid weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
Busch qualified sixth and, for the most part, ran at the front of the field all day.
Still, when it came to crunch time, everything fell apart during the nine-lap run to the finish, when contact with John Hunter Nemechek on the back stretch turned into Busch slamming the Legacy Motor Club driver in the middle of turns three and four.
In the aftermath, this wreck, which ended Nemechek’s day 21st and Busch’s 20th, both shared their own takes on the wreck, with the former posting, “not freaking clear. great day going. and just got wrecked. what an ass,” after the race.
Busch also responded with the SMT data, saying for his own part, “The 42 apparently doesn’t know where the RS of his car is and where he is in relation to the outside wall.”
While the rhubarb yielded little to nothing for the two, fans are now wondering whether NASCAR will retaliate against the arrogant door slam, or if Busch will walk away with nothing but his reputation damaged.
Whenever a driver wrecks another driver in the manner that Busch did to Nemechek, the first question that might come to mind is whether or not NASCAR will suspend Busch.
The last driver in the Cup Series suspended for such actions was Chase Elliott, who wrecked Denny Hamlin during the 2023 Coca-Cola 600.
Last year, two National Series drivers were suspended for intentional wrecks, both in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The first was Austin Hill at Indianapolis, and the second was Sam Mayer at Martinsville.
In the case of Elliott in 2023, and Hill last year, both were the result of right rear hooks, and in the case of Mayer, his was a left rear hook to Jeb Burton after the race.
In this case, most feel that a suspension of Busch would be a little extreme, as this was more of a (very) hard door slam than a hook into the outside wall.
Of course, that doesn’t mean NASCAR can’t penalize Busch for wrecking another driver.
In 2025, Austin Cindric hooked Ty Dillon on the front stretch of Circuit of the Americas in a retaliatory manner, and, as a result, NASCAR penalized Cindric 50 driver points and fined him $50,000.
Again, unlike Busch, this was a hook to the rear of Dillon, but still, this was at a slower portion of a road course as compared to the higher speed racing at Texas Motor Speedway.
In fact, this was not the first time Busch has wrecked a Toyota driver after an on-track battle, doing so to Riley Herbst at Bristol just a few weeks ago.
In that case, a hook to the left rear of Herbst, NASCAR did not act on Busch, though this was, again, on a slower-paced race track.
For the most part, the fallout of Busch wrecking Nemechek has captivated most of the NASCAR community on Monday morning.
While each side will always have its supporters, a large number of fans have laughed about Busch trying to claim that he did not start the shoving match on track.
Nonetheless, most fans and some media members are not calling for anything as dramatic or serious as a penalty for the matter. For one, Jeff Gluck of The Athletic suggested on the post-Texas episode of The Teardown podcast that a penalty would be a step in the wrong direction.
But the decision is up to NASCAR, while they have yet to rule on Busch’s actions, penalty reports are usually released later in the week, usually on Tuesday or Wednesday.
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