Mayfield: Busch's tirade deserves punishment

RICHMOND, Va. -- In Jeremy Mayfield's mind, there's no doubt that Kurt Busch should be punished for his actions last weekend at Darlington Raceway.

"I think it was disrespectful on Kurt's part and I think anyone in the garage area will tell you that," Mayfield said.

	Kurt Busch
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"Whether it's a fine or not I don't know. That's NASCAR's decision, but that's pretty disrespectful."

Busch crashed on the opening lap of last Saturday's Dodge Charger 500 at Darlington. When he returned to the track several laps later, he ignored a directive from NASCAR to let the leaders pass him on the racetrack.

Busch then cursed out NASCAR officials on his radio and later threw a water bottle out his window while on pit road. The bottle hit a NASCAR official.

Busch was given a warning by NASCAR on the incident, but was neither fined nor docked points.

Mayfield said a stronger punishment is in order.

"I don't know about a fine, but ya gotta do something because if you don't fine 'em, [NASCAR is] saying it's all right to do that," Mayfield said.

Meanwhile, Mayfield says he's thrilled to be back at Richmond, where he won last fall to earn a spot in last year's Chase for the Nextel Cup.

"It couldn't get any better than that," Mayfield said. "We've improved since then and should be very competitive."

Mayfield needs a strong run Saturday night. He sits 15th in the series standings, 74 points out of the all-important 10th spot. He finished fourth at Talladega two weeks ago, but got caught up in an accident last weekend at Darlington and finished 33rd.

"In the last three to four races, we've had very good racecars," Mayfield said. "The Evernham chassis are working well. [Crew chief] Slugger [Labbe] and I communicate better each race. He knows what I'm looking for in the handling and I'm giving him the information he needs to make the adjustments to create that feel.

"When we unload at the track, we can focus on fine-tuning the car and not have to spend all our time trying to get the car balanced. Saturday night at a short track. What could be better?"