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NASCAR Explains Why Kyle Busch Was Not Penalized For Seemingly Retaliating Against John Hunter Nemechek

May 6, 2026  ·
  John Trent

NASCAR’s Managing Director of Racing Communications Mike Forde announced that Kyle Busch would not receive a penalty after his incident and seeming retaliation against John Hunter Nemechek coming to the white flag at Texas on Sunday.

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. 

First, Forde announced there was no penalty, “No penalty there. Kyle Busch will not be penalized.”

“We did the same thing, video, audio, and SMT data. Talked about Scott Miller, former Senior VP of Competition for NASCAR, now moved into the role of Competition Strategist. So he’s still part of our team and one of his responsibilities is when we have incidents like this is to dive into the SMT data. He has a long history with that and so we rely on his expertise when we do that. And the SMT data is largely what played a role for us in this decision,” he explained.

Regarding the seeming retaliation from Busch after the initial contact, Forde said, “It was interesting, Elton Sawyer, before I came over here, was saying that the data told us that after the incident he was turning the wheel all the way left just to go straight. We had a feeling that he had some pretty significant damage and it was to Letarte’s point was inconclusive on if that was a damaged vehicle that caused him to get into the 42 or if it was intentional. The SMT data there was zero things, in our opinion, that said he did this intentionally and it rose to the level of penalty. So that’s why we landed on no penalty there.”

While there will be no penalty, Forde shared that NASCAR plans to meet with Busch and Richard Childress Racing management to talk about his driving so that he’s not the subject of whether or not he should receive a penalty because “the benefit of the doubt is running out pretty quickly.”

Immediately following the wreck, Nemechek questioned what Busch was doing, “Why did he do that?”


He added in a post to X, “not freaking clear. great day going. and just got wrecked. what an ass.”

Busch addressed it on social media writing in a post on X, “I did not start this. The 42 apparently doesn’t know where the RS of his car is and where he is in relation to the outside wall. There was 2 ft outside him and I was judging my left side tires to the hash marks. Always know who your racing beside.”

In another post he responded to a fan who claimed that he shouldn’t be driving based off where he assumes other drives should be. Busch wrote, “How do u know where they are when their in your blind spot smart guy? Every situation the guy behind is on my RR. How can I see that? I thought it was always the guy behind at fault for running into you?”

He added, “They have 2 pedals and a steering wheel too.”

NEXT: NASCAR Officials Penalize Ryan Preece For Incident With Ty Gibbs At Texas On Sunday

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Author: John Trent