McReynolds Reacts to Busch’s Suspension and Actions
SPEED analyst Larry McReynolds joined host Steve Byrnes and Matt Clark on Monday’s NASCAR Race Hub, offering his perspective on Busch’s situation and the resulting punishment. Following are excerpts from McReynolds’ analysis:
“I am a huge Kurt Busch fan and I’m not going to pile on Kurt Busch. But this isn’t just about what happened at Dover on Saturday. This is Homestead. This is Darlington. This is Dover. These are all the things that NASCAR had to take a big-picture look at and I think that’s the reason the suspension was handed down today.
“He has a championship and 24 Sprint Cup Series wins. He alone is holding his career in the palm of his hands and he’s absolutely throwing it away. It makes me want to shake him and say, ‘Kurt, please take a look at what you’re doing.’
“I’m okay with what we saw there on the race track (racing against Justin Allgaier in Nationwide race at Dover). I’m okay with him confronting Justin Allgaier on pit road. We don’t have enough of that right now. That’s something that is missing in the sport. But this is not about passion – this is about respect for people – people like us (media) who are trying to grow and build this sport.
“I said on NASCAR RaceDay from Dover that the next 60 to 90 days for Kurt Busch are going to be so critical, not for what he does on the race track but how he handles situations. Just this morning, JD Gibbs was asked on Sirius Radio if he and Joe (Gibbs) would consider Kurt Busch for a ride, and he said because of things going on with Kurt Busch off the race track, it wouldn’t even be on their radar. As I said, he is self-destructing and he’s in control of it."