Late in the race at Nashville Superspeedway, Ross Chastain was involved in an accident and Kyle Busch ended up getting involved. At least the NASCAR The champion had to backtrack to avoid Chastain and ended up hitting the wall himself in the process.
Kyle Busch fought to get his car to the front of the field. He qualified P27. He was at the back of the field for much of the race early on. Then, a good pit strategy and tire decisions propelled him to the front.
With track position secured and an overtime battle brewing, Busch was there. He was P4 with, ideally, a restart away from his first top-five finish since Dover. Then Chastain failed and Busch was passed by a ton of cars.
So why did NASCAR let Rowdy get back to P4 before the next restart? Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic discussed the topic on Disassembly after the race.
“(Busch) is fourth or something, and then he crashes, hits Chastain, loses about 15 spots,” Gluck said. “I guess we can talk about that now. … NASCAR puts him back, he gets passed by half the field…”
Why Did NASCAR Keep Kyle Busch in Position After Crash?
Jordan Bianchi later gave his opinion after speaking with NASCAR about the incident.
“I asked the question and it was explained to me that the rule is to maintain your speed, right?” Bianchi said. “A reasonable speed. As it was explained to me, if Kyle Busch had maintained a reasonable speed, he would have hit Ross Chastain head-on. So he used his best judgment to back up and not make the situation worse.
“So he wasn’t really involved in the accident, he was being careful and courteous, and I’m paraphrasing a little bit here. That’s why they gave him his seat back because he wasn’t in the accident and if he had continued to hold his position like he’s supposed to, he could have potentially hurt somebody. … It’s explained to me that this is not something that happens all the time, it’s definitely a judgment call. It’s something where NASCAR has exercised that discretion before.”
Even after hearing the explanation, Gluck didn’t believe it. I don’t think Bianchi believed it either.
“I have a hard time believing that this is the real explanation, the real reason,” Gluck says. “Because it’s not possible. It’s just not possible. What? It’s just not right.”
Neither Gluck nor Bianchi supported the decision. What do you think, did NASCAR let Kyle Busch through when he didn’t deserve it? It didn’t matter much because Busch would be abandoned on next reboot.
