After months of inconsistencies and disappointing finishes, Kyle Busch finally found himself in a strong spot at Texas earlier, but seemingly, he threw that away after involving himself in an end-of-the-race collision. Understandably, this angered many, but the bigger question remains: should Busch be punished?

Insiders analyze Kyle Busch’s situation

On the final lap, Lap 266 of 267, Busch and Nemechek made contact as the two squeezed off Turn 2 into the backstretch wall, both fighting for 12th place. It didn’t take ‘Rowdy’ long to hit back. Entering Turn 3, Busch doored Nemechek and sent him spinning hard into the outside wall. Nemechek, who took significant right-side damage, gingerly drove to pit road while the race finished under green. He ended up 21st, while Busch finished 20th.

“You get involved in this tit-for-tat fighting over 12th, and you end up finishing 20,” Jordan Bianchi said, taking shots at Busch.

“There’s a lot of blame on the season on where this team is at right now, but some of it falls on Kyle’s shoulders,” Bianchi added.

There has been the possibility of the #8 team, or at least Busch, being penalized. However, apart from an investigation into the second bump, there has been no update from NASCAR. Moreover, insider Jeff Gluck had quite a unique perspective on the entire situation, letting Busch go easy.

“I personally don’t think that it should be a penalty,” he said. “Door-slamming somebody after you feel like you just got wronged is part of it. That’s part of this Cup Series racing, and that’s the kind of stuff that self-polices on the track. I would hate to see NASCAR step in and discourage that at this point.”

Meanwhile, Bob Pockrass had a more measured view.

“I think the question is how does NASCAR look at that frustration,” Pockrass said. “They do say this is a contact sport. They do say that, you know, if you get bumped you can bump somebody back. And Kyle Busch felt like he got bumped. He felt like he held his line according to what he posted on social media.

“And then obviously it looked like they called it a hip check. It wasn’t a right hook, but still was some pretty solid contact. I don’t know how NASCAR will look at it. Wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t a penalty, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if there was one.”

Using telemetry and in-car data to justify his position, Busch denied that his move was deliberate, so there could be a chance that NASCAR does not penalize him because of a lack of evidence. This happened earlier this year as well, when he got away after making contact with Riley Herbst at Bristol.

But the main issue lay with what was at stake. This was a fabulous weekend for the #8 team. They were seemingly on their way to a second consecutive top 10 finish, amidst Busch experiencing one of the worst starts to his Cup season. Richard Childress further put a lot into this weekend, with a car that favored Busch, a new crew chief, and a car that was much more competitive than it had been on the past weekends. But at the end of the day, Kyle Busch ended up losing eight positions on the final lap.

In fact, Kevin Harvick has now hinted that Busch’s ride next year could be in jeopardy.

“It’s a contract year for Kyle Busch,” Harvick said. “I believe that this is probably realistically maybe the only spot that he has to still have a seat in the sport. And I think he needs to do everything that he can do to try to protect that and I think that this was definitely not the way that it needed to end at the end of this race.”

So far, there hasn’t been any word from NASCAR on the possibility of some retribution against Busch and his unphased moves on the track. And with the support he seems to be getting from the insiders, it seems like he would once again not have to answer anyone. But this is far from being the first time an incident like this has happened this season, even as his spotter tried to keep him calm.

Denny Hamlin showers praise for Kneeland

“God bless Derek Kneeland, his spotter. I thought he just doing a great job of like trying to just put some chill in his life,” Denny Hamlin said on the Actions Detrimental podcast.

Even when Busch faced some trouble with Carson Hocevar early in the race, Kneeland had been commanding: “We haven’t run in the top 10 in like three years. We’re having a great day here today. Keep it together. I know it’s not perfect. Just keep your s– together; we’re having a good day.”

Kyle Busch, however, took it with a grain of salt, “OK, psych major. That’s not at all what I’m talking about. Let’s keep it in one piece; that could have ruined our day. OK? It’s other people. I’m fine. Put a bag of ice in your c—, let’s go.”

It was Hocevar who attempted a risky move against the #8, which could have ended the race for the crew.

Then, when the incident with John Hunter Nemechek took place, it was apparent that Busch had paid no heed to his spotter’s instruction not to get involved in clashes.