Kurt Busch's suspension upheld twice on Saturday

Posted on February 21, 2015 by Zack Albert

Driver’s final appeal denied; earlier appeal denied as well

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kurt Busch’s final appeal of NASCAR’s indefinite suspension was denied Saturday night. This came hours after his first appeal was rejected and one day after the sanctioning body handed down punishment based on the findings of a Delaware family court.

NASCAR announced the final decision from National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer Bryan Moss at its headquarters at the International Motorsports Center, where both appeals were heard Saturday. Busch was not allowed counsel from Rusty Hardin, his lead attorney, or any member of his legal team during either hearing.

The ruling scuttles any notion of an 11th-hour reinstatement to the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevrolet ahead of Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500. Team representatives said Saturday morning that SHR planned to enter Regan Smith as an interim driver of the No. 41 car, regardless of the appeal’s outcome. Smith was fitted for the driver’s seat and drove the car in Saturday’s final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice.

Busch has now exhausted his appeal options under the NASCAR rulebook and the indefinite suspension remains in effect.

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Busch’s next step toward potential reinstatement will be a prescribed path of treatment subject to professional review, similar to the NASCAR Road to Recovery substance abuse reinstatement process, according to a NASCAR spokesperson. Busch is already required "to be evaluated by a licensed mental health professional" and to complete any prescribed plan of treatment, according to the terms of the family court’s conclusions.

"We are unhappy with the latest decision to deny our re-appeal, but we will continue to exhaust every procedural and legal remedy we have available to us until Kurt Busch is vindicated," Hardin said in a statement.

Busch was suspended Friday after the conclusions reached by Kent County (Delaware) Commissioner David Jones stated that a "preponderance of the evidence" indicated that Busch "committed an act of domestic violence" against former girlfriend Patricia Driscoll last September at Dover International Speedway. Jones’ findings were released four days after the family court granted Driscoll’s request for an Order of Protection from Abuse, stemming from their alleged altercation in Busch’s motorcoach.

Busch’s punishment fell under two headings in the NASCAR Rule Book: Section 12.1.a: Actions detrimental to stock car racing; and 12.8: Behavioral penalty.

On Friday, Steve O’Donnell — NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer — said that Busch had the option of appealing the decision and that the process would be expedited. Hardin indicated shortly thereafter that his client would contest the ruling.

Busch’s first appeal, which was scheduled at noon ET Saturday, was heard by the three-member National Motorsports Appeals Panel. Hardin indicated minutes after the decision was announced that the driver would submit a final appeal.

"We are very disappointed that our appeal was rejected by NASCAR’s appeal panel," Hardin said in a statement after the first decision was made public. "We are re-appealing immediately, per the proscribed process. We have significant and strong evidence that contradicts the Commissioner’s conclusions. In the end we are confident that Kurt will be vindicated and he will be back racing. Until then we will continue to fight on his behalf by ensuring that the entire truth is known."

Busch’s last recourse in attempting to gain reinstatement during Daytona’s Speedweeks marked the first final appeal heard by Moss, the former president of Gulfstream Aerospace who was named National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer last season.

Moss’ decision is final. The main difference between the two hearings — according to the NASCAR Rule Book — is that the burden of proof fell to Busch in the final appeal; in the initial appeal, the burden of proof was NASCAR’s responsibility.

In both appeals, Jim Cassidy, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Operations, represented the sanctioning body, and NASCAR Vice President George Silbermann served as the appellate administrator.

According to a NASCAR release, the three-member panel for Saturday’s first appeal consisted of: Paul Brooks, a former NASCAR Senior Vice President; Lyn St. James, a former IndyCar and sports car racer; and Kevin Whitaker, operator of Greenville-Pickens Speedway, a NASCAR-sanctioned weekly track in South Carolina.

Busch left the building, across the street from Daytona International Speedway, after the first appeal Saturday afternoon without comment, whisked away in the back seat of a Ford SUV that squealed its tires as it departed at 2:56 p.m. ET. The decision was announced approximately 20 minutes later.

The Monday ruling for a no-contact order is a separate legal matter from the Dover (Delaware) Police Department’s investigation of the alleged assault. The department concluded its probe on Jan. 6, turning the case over to the county’s attorney general’s office, which has not decided whether Busch will face criminal charges.

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Posted on February 21, 2015 by Nascar

For Daytona 500, workers are installing tire packs where Kyle Busch hit wall

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Daytona International Speedway track president Joie Chitwood III said Saturday evening that the facility had "failed to live up to its responsibility today," hours after NASCAR driver Kyle Busch was transported to nearby Halifax Medical Center for treatment of a leg injury.

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Busch, competing in Saturday’s XFINITY Series season-opening race, was injured when he his No 54 Joe Gibbs Racing entry struck the inside wall nose first on the 112th lap of the 120-lap event.

Due to the severity of the injury, NASCAR officials said the 29-year-old Busch would not be able to compete in Sunday’s Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event.

RELATED: Drivers wish Kyle Busch well

JGR officials announced at approximately 9:19 p.m. ET Saturday that Busch had sustained a compound fracture of the right lower leg as well as a mid-foot fracture of his left foot. The injuries will keep Busch off the track for an indefinite period.

Defending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Matt Crafton will replace Busch in the team’s No. 18 entry for the 500, however no replacement has been named for future races.

While much of Daytona’s 2.5-mile track features the impact-absorbing SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barrier, the area struck by Busch’s car does not.

"We should have had a SAFER barrier there today; we did not," Chitwood said. "We’re going to fix that. We’re going to fix that right now."

Chitwood, who took over the reins of NASCAR’s best-known facility in August of 2010, said track officials had dispersed a team of workers Saturday night to "install tire packs along that 850-foot … wall, so we’re ready to go racing (Sunday).

Once the event is complete, Chitwood said work would begin to "install SAFER barrier on every inch at this property.

"This is not going to happen again," he said. "We’re going to live up to our responsibility. We’re going to fix this and it starts right now."

Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the first NASCAR-sanctioned track to put the barriers in place, completing its initial installation in May of 2002. A second generation of the barrier was installed at IMS in ’05.

Kansas Speedway completed its first SAFER barrier project in August of ’04 and other NASCAR-sanctioned facilities have since upgraded their facilities to include the system as well.

However, no NASCAR-sanctioned track currently feature the energy-reducing materials on all of its interior and exterior walls.

Steve O’Donnell, Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer for NASCAR, said officials have been told that there were situations in which it would be unwise to install the barriers in certain locations at some tracks.

"I think it goes to NASCAR is not the only sanctioning body that races at a specific track," he said. "I can use Eldora for instance, where a SAFER barrier was looked at, but wouldn’t have been the safest solution."

Eldora Speedway, a one-half mile dirt track located in Rossville, Ohio and owned by NASCAR driver Tony Stewart, hosts a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event each year.

"One of the challenges is there are a lot of other racing series that race at the racetracks we race at," O’Donnell said, "but I wouldn’t say it’s a very common occurrence."

Busch’s injury was just the latest involving NASCAR drivers hitting walls left unprotected by the barriers. In 2013, teammate Denny Hamlin suffered a back injury that sidelined the JGR driver after a hard crash at Auto Club Speedway.

The track installed 1,000 additional feet of the barrier in the wake of Hamlin’s accident.

Jeff Gordon’s crash at Las Vegas brought about changes to the inside wall where his No. 24 entry struck in a 2011 incident; crashes by Elliott Sadler at Pocono Raceway and Jeff Fuller at Kentucky in recent years brought about changes at those facilities as well.

O’Donnell did not say that NASCAR would require every facility to install the SAFER barrier on all of the walls. But he said talks about increasing the amount of the barrier are on-going and would continue.

"We always have those conversations with the race tracks," he said. "What we’ve said here tonight is we will accelerate those talks with the tracks. We want this sport to be as safe as possible for not only our drivers, but for everyone who participates in the sport and the race fans as well."

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