Kyle Busch was disqualified from an apparent victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday after his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Toyota failed post-race inspection at Texas Motor Speedway.
Busch’s car was found out of compliance with the height requirements, according to the NASCAR Rule Book. That ruling elevated Austin Cindric, who was the second driver to take the checkered flag, to his third Xfinity Series victory of the year in the My Bariatric Solutions 300. It also sent Busch’s No. 54 to last place in the 37-car field.
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After winning Saturday night’s Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race, Busch said he was unsure what caused the car to fail the height portion of the inspection. He said he was unsure whether the team would appeal the penalty, adding that his reaction to the violation was frustration instead of a indifference for an infraction that wasn’t his doing.
“Yeah, it’s bothersome. It pisses me off,” Busch said. “We come out here and race and run hard and score a win and then it gets taken away from you. It sucks because it’s nothing we did. We even put a round in the right-rear during the race in order to help the handling characteristic and then the left-rear was low. I don’t know. There’s nothing I can do about it, so you just kind of move on. I don’t know; I guess NASCAR wants me here longer.”
His last remark was delivered with a smirk. Busch is on record as saying he would retire from Xfinity Series competition after scoring his 100th career victory. Saturday would have marked No. 98.
The last driver to be disqualified from an Xfinity Series win was Denny Hamlin, whose No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was also penalized for failing height requirements last August at Darlington Raceway. That promoted apparent runner-up Cole Custer to victory.
NASCAR competition officials introduced a tougher deterrence system into the rule book before the 2019 season, one that included disqualifications for significant rules violations.