NASCAR Managing Director of Racing Communications Mike Forde explained why the sanctioning body decided to penalize Ryan Preece for his incident with Ty Gibbs, but not penalize Kyle Busch for his incident with John Hunter Nemechek.
In the most recent episode of Hauler Talk, Forde was asked, “Does it just come down to the fact that the difference between this and Preece was there is no audio, there is no evidence of him vowing retribution and acting on it? That’s the difference?”
Forde replied, “That’s the difference. And the SMT data was different too. There was no audio that came out and said, ‘I’m going to wreck the 42.’ And then he wrecked the 42. So that’s one. And then two, is the SMT data that showed-. Well, one, it didn’t show anything that suggested that he did do it, and also the fact that his steering was so jacked it showed at least there was a plausible chance that his car had some damage that led to what happened.”
When asked if Kyle Busch and John Hunter Nemechek’s social media posts were discussed, Forde said, “Not any that I was involved in. Maybe, yesterday, behind-the-scenes, or after the one meeting we had there about it. The social media exchange was not part of the conversation I was in.”
Preece was penalized 25 driver points and fined $50,000 for “wrecking or spinning another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from competition as a result.” NASCAR deemed that Preece wrecked Ty Gibbs. Following a restart on lap 101, as the two were coming through turns 3 and 4, Gibbs spun with Preece right on his bumper and slammed hard into the outside wall while the two were racing each other back around the 20th position.
As for Busch as Forde mentioned he was not penalized for an incident in the final laps with John Hunter Nemechek. The two came together racing down the back stretch and they both got into the wall after hitting each other. After they began to recover and drove into the corner, Busch appeared to retaliate against Nemechek by driving up into his side. The contact sent Nemechek crashing hard into the outside wall.
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