Sporting dark sunglasses, Kyle Busch stepped out of the NASCAR transporter determined to do his best impression of former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, who scrupulously avoided making meaningful comments to reporters. To five straight questions, Busch answered with some variation of the following: ‘Everything’s great. Looking forward to getting back to the race track and back in my race car. Everything wasn’t so great for Busch last Sunday in Las Vegas, when, during a battle for third place, Joey Logano’s Ford slid up the track into Busch’s Toyota on the last lap of the Kobalt 400. Busch spun toward the inside wall and eventually finished 22nd. Logano saved his car and came home fourth, only to have Busch launch a haymaker in his direction on pit road. When Logano’s crew members jumped into the fray to protect their driver, Busch was taken to the pavement and wound up with a bloody cut to his forehead. That’s why NASCAR summoned both Busch and Logano to the hauler on Friday morning at Phoenix International Raceway.(NASCAR Wire Service)
AND Busch spoke to a pair of reporters (including Jeff Gluck) on pit road after his qualifying lap, telling us why he punched Logano last week and adding he still didn’t buy Logano’s explanation. When Busch tried to make a move down the backstretch and avoid a slowing Brad Keselowski on the last lap, he made contact with Logano. He felt Logano then took revenge right away. ‘It was instantaneous, Busch said. ‘I made a move down the backstretch that cut Joey off – and I had to; I wasn’t just going to roll out of the gas and fall in behind Brad and probably lose spots to more guys behind me. So I made a bold move – I was two-thirds of my way past Logano, and I figured I can wedge my way through there a little bit. And I did, and it was instantaneous retaliation. That’s what I thought and that’s kind of what I still think. Logano presented Busch with data during their meeting with NASCAR that he felt proved the incident was unintentional, but Busch didn’t believe it. ‘No, Busch said after being asked whether the data changed his mind. ‘Nope.(JeffGluck.com)[More]
