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Teammates Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez argued after Sunday's race. Is this something to watch? Or is it just indicative of how rough road course racing has become?
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Thumbnail Cred: NASCAR, FOX Sports
0:00 AE Engine
1:52 Kurt Busch
4:15 Suarez vs Chastain
8:20 More Angry Drivers
48 comments
Kurt Busch was 100% right saying that the 45 car is in great hands
I’m truly happy Kurt’s in broadcasting. He’s been through EVERYTHING that a nascar driver can go through and it’s made him a better person. I liked his commentary but his passion n emotion are wonderful to see
Reddick reminds me of Mark Martin in so many ways. His small stature, his “no bullshit” soft-spoken and thoughtful demeanor, and most of all his consistent championship-level speed. He’s quickly become one of my top 3 favorite drivers in the series.
@LionAndALamb fantastic comparison!
What do you mean? Up till now he has been embarrassed in the Toyota
Remember when Kurt Busch was public enemy number one? He’s really turned things around. Good on him.
After taking anger management classes really helped.
I feel like the same thing has happened throughout history in NASCAR where the ‘villain’ loses their “Enemy-of-the-Public” persona through character change or by design (new bad boy shows up).
DW was the ‘villain’ during the 1970s and 1980s but was admired by fans later when he had a few bad wrecks and when Rusty became public enemy number one for his antics. Rusty had a similar character change when he did a lot to pay tribute to fallen racers (i.e. Dale Earnhardt, Davey, etc.), Ironically, when he was finally accepted as a ‘good guy’, Tony Stewart shows up and takes the bad boy crown. Tony stays like that until his character changes (with the purchase of SHR and with the Busch’s becoming the new bad boys). I guess with both Kurt’s injury, and Kyle’s moving to RCR, their characters have changed and I would say it’s Joey Logano’s and Denny Hamlin’s turns to be the ‘bad boys’ based on how they’ve acted as of late.
I always liked Kurt. His main problem 20 years ago was Jimmie. He was jealous of Jimmie’s winning and couldn’t get him out of his head. Remember when he called Jimmie “his arch nemesis”? That told me that JJ was living rent free in Kurt’s head. He had anger issues and was let go by Penske. I always wanted him to rebound and win another championship. He’s that good. A damned shame that he had to be a casualty of this new car.
@LyleFrancisDelp yeah. I never had problems with Kurt. I didn’t like Jimmie at the time, and I loved Ryan Newman, so Kurt was okay in my book. Especially after the 2008 Daytona 500.
Never been a fan of Kurt…But I do hope he gets to drive again and go out on his terms. He has earned that.
Speaking of Kurt Busch let’s think back to when he first started racing. He at one point couldn’t find sponsors or teams that were willing to work with him. He has now become the perfect mentor to a growing team.
Kurt is better than his brother 100%, I can stand actually listening to him lol
@Davyn Carulli Yeah ok
@Chris O what
Eric, I have been watching NASCAR for 22 years and in my opinion the easiest fix for this is single file restarts for overtime restarts only. to me NASCAR should want these races to be over as quickly as possible after we have gone over the schedule distance and single file restarts will allow that to be the best possibility while still keeping things fair.
I think this would be perfect, but unfortunately I really doubt nascar is going to do it
I 100% agree. I think maybe the first restart could be as it is now, but any subsequent restarts would be single file. That’s how it is done at a lot of local tracks, especially it seems in dirt track racing.
I think the whole race should even be considered.
“You can’t control the sea, but you can adjust the sails”. That sums up Kurt Busch’s tone, and that’s commendable.
That gives me chills from kurt. He’s genuinely hurt but touched at the same time
There’s a couple areas that could be made “out of bounds” like pit out going to turn one and the inside line on “heartburn turn”to try and fix 5-6 wide dive bombs. Something needs to be done. I’ve become a fan of Kurt over the last 5 years or so. He’s really become a respected figure in the garage. Daniel needs watch a replay before he freaks out and he will be fined,deservedly. Im glad Tyler won he earned it and had the best car.
I think what has caused this mayhem is how sturdy the gen7 car is built. Drivers know they can slam into another without much chance of causing damage. On the older cars, if you hit someone with a fender, it would cut a tire. Slam into someone from behind, you’re at least causing an aero disadvantage, worse knocking out your radiator.
If you give drivers a carnival-like bumper car, they are going to use it as one. The days when a driver not only took someone else out but himself also, limited the aggression.
@Southern Rebel that and drivers having to repair a car deterred reckless driving
I think the rigidity of the cars (as well as better brakes; allowing drivers to push harder into a corner) definitely plays a factor, but we’ve also seen these cars break incredibly easily as well. Suarez was knocked out of the race at Atlanta due to him barely touching Larson as he spun. Completely broke Suarez’s right front wheel. A similar situation happened between Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch in the spring Darlington race last year.
@Bulgogi77 yeah, the toe links are the weakest part of the new car, several drivers had to either pit to replace toe links, or retire because of them on Sunday
Sturdier to AN EXTENT. The one problem that seems to easily happen with even little contact is the Toe Link. That thing seems to break WAY too easily.
Those final restarts shows exactly why our sport doesn’t get the respect from other fanbases in motorsports.
I think this race might’ve scared off other former F1 drivers from trying out NASCAR racing in the near future.
The bigger issue imo is that you have fans that think those chaos restarts are good races
Why should we care? The rest of the world has F1. There were probably more passes in turn 1 at cota than occurs in the entire F1 season.
@Tyler You should care. A motorsports longevity is dependent on growth, whether that growth offsets the loss of older fans or surpasses it. International appeal is something every motorsport needs right now and if you don’t do it, you end up like the WRC…where youre a shell of your former self and almost forgotten about. NASCAR needs the international fans to offset the fans its losing or that it has lost in the US. You can only do so much about gaining fans in country and you have entire continents that live and breathe motorsport, no matter what discipline it is. The rest of the world may have F1 but they also want other motorsports and its important to put yourself in that running
@KolhirasCorner I agree with you 100%, but the bigger issue for NASCAR is that this isn’t the first time this stuff has happened. It seems like every time NASCAR grows its international interest, the driving goes down the drain and the drivers cause NASCAR to get laughed out of the discussion and has to piece together its reputation again, which gets more difficult and takes longer every time.
Keep in mind he not only lost his ride/career, he separated from his wife too
Kurt keeping his head high is superhuman
Thanks for returning to the discussion on bad manners & possibly real dangerous driving. We seem to have forgotten the terrible injuries & deaths that occurred BY accident. Now these potential shining stars are risking too much if this continues to escalate. For those of us who have loved NASCAR racing for a long time #6 is a reminder of a gentleman & a regular winner Mark Martin. His is an example we could do with again.
Sadly not many new fans even know who Mark Martin is.
@Jayanna Kelley Yeah, that is such a damn shame too. Drivers in the past were not only tough but also classy. Sad thing is that common courtesy is a foreign concept these days.
@Cole Murray – Yes I do agree. Even working as part of a race team 10+ years, there wasn’t this level of craziness then. I enjoy hard racing like Bryon /Reddick had. That was great to watch. I’m not naive enough to know sometimes flat tires, ext aren’t going to happen & unfortunately drivers will get caught up in that but damn, some out there need to use their damn heads!
I definitely cried for about 5 seconds after hearing Kurt get emotional. This has been a truly sad result for him
I think, as a lifelong Kurt fan, I’ve been more bitter about this than he has. I was doing my own thing announcing the race Sunday, so I didn’t hear the call, but hearing the clip afterwards made me start bawling. Seeing my guy’s evolution from public enemy #1 to one of the sport’s most beloved drivers has been magical. This moment has finally given me peace at long last, to know that he is truly okay with this outcome.
Well said.
its starting to look like Kyle isnt too far behind
As a Kurt Busch fan, it hurts not seeing him in the car! But your right he’s become such a great person and teammate… something nobody would’ve thought early in his career. Can’t wait to see what he does in the future for 23XI and NASCAR
Kurt being emotional calling Tyler in the 45 to the win is great for NASCAR. Darrell calling Micheal to a few wins., Glenn ( Ned ?) calling Dale to a couple wins. It makes Nascar awesome.
I was a bit surprised that Kurt got emotional on the last lap of the race. I never heard someone tearing up in the booth until that happened. It shows how loyal and passionate he is to the team and I respect that. Now, on the Chastain-Suarez situation, I’m not surprised if two teammates are starting to not see eye to eye with each other. Gordon and Johnson went through something like this before so this is nothing really new.
Kurt getting choked up was so emotional and showed just how much he really still cares about the team and the car. And Denny actually had a really good suggestion to minimize the chaos going into turn 1 at these places. Take the restart zone and put it in between the final two corners on the straight where the pit road entrance is.
Rewatching those restarts just reinforces how AJ really tried to let the crazy guys go into 1 and give them room. Yet because of the accordion effect, still gets taken out with no fault of his own. The last hour of this race was painful. Since we are making up the rules as we go, let’s limit the gwc in road courses. Each gwc at a road course causes more desperation.