Road courses are rare on the NASCAR circuit, for better and worse. While it’s nice to break up the left turn monotony from time to time, it’s also probably not a racing format best suited for the big stock cars, and can lead to some lengthy stretches without much passing.
(I will always remember Dale Earnhardt winning the pole and then driving an entire Watkins Glen race with a broken collarbone and dislocated sternum just two weeks after the Talledega crash that caused those injuries. He was only supposed to run a few laps before turning it over to a backup driver. He finished sixth.)
One thing it does help lead to, though: very angry drivers, because apparently a road course requires rubbing, racing, and retribution. Today’s incident between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski didn’t appear to be intentional, but that didn’t help cool Kyle Busch’s notoriously hot temper.
Busch appeared to have a run on Keselowski as they entered the “Bus Stop” section of the course, but Keselowski either didn’t see him or didn’t care before moving up the track:
Busch was not happy in the aftermath:
Both drivers were able to continue, though each needed to pit for fresh tires. And on his way to the pits, Busch made it obvious who he felt was culpable for causing the incident.
“You all better keep me away from that (expletive) after this race,” Busch radioed to his team. “I will kill that (expletive).”
Keselowski didn’t think it was his fault:
Keselowski had a different interpretation of what transpired.
“I was going into the corner and I had (AJ Allmendinger) behind me and when I got into the corner (Busch) was next to me,” Keselowski told reporters following the race. “My spotter called it but we were already in the corner. It was too much for me to avoid. We got into each other and that hurt everybody.”
Kyle Busch ended up finishing 7th, while Keselowski ended up 15th after running out of fuel late.
[SB Nation]