Kyle Busch: NASCAR rule change quelches 'strongest force of competition'
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Kyle Busch wasn’t surprised by what some people are calling NASCAR’s “Kyle Busch Rule” – a new policy announced this week that limits Cup drivers in the Xfinity and Camping World Truck series in 2017.
After all, he told USA TODAY Sports and ESPN.com on Friday, it’s not the first time it’s happened.
“I guess I should be flattered people are saying that,” Busch said. “There’s already been a Kyle Busch Rule years ago when they made the rule (about 18 being the minimum age) when I was 16 and got booted out. So this is Kyle Busch 2.0.”
Busch said he believed the rule was made “to eliminate the strongest force of competition, and that was us.”
Though the driver accepted the decision, it won’t come without headaches for Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing. The all-time leader in Xfinity wins with 85 said sponsor NOS Energy Drink had already signed for more than the maximum 10 races allowed, and now the agreement has to be renegotiated.
“What we do with the rest of the money NOS Energy Drink pays us for the rest of the races, we’ve got to work out,” he said. “We already had a deal in place, so now those contracts are null and void and have to change.”
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Busch – and other Cup drivers with more than five years of experience – can run a maximum of 10 Xfinity races and seven Truck races next season, but none in the final eight races. In addition, Cup drivers cannot race in Xfinity’s “Dash 4 Cash” races, which have yet to be announced.
When also factoring in non-Cup companion weekends – Busch won’t run Iowa Speedway, for example – there are a considerable amount of races he can’t run.
But Busch, who has won nine of his 16 Xfinity starts this season, said he’ll do as many as he can.
“I’m 100% certain we’re going to run those 10 races we’re allowed to,” he said.
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Busch said he’s known NASCAR has wanted to take this direction for years, because “they’ve been continually making rules to try and eliminate the opportunity for Cup guys to run as much as they do.”
For example: In 2011, NASCAR made drivers declare for points in one series – which basically took away the reward for Cup drivers racing full time in the lower series. This year, NASCAR banned Chase drivers from racing in the Xfinity and Truck finales at Homestead-Miami Speedway (a rule that extends to all Cup drivers next year).
So was the rule change a case of Busch winning too much?
“I just (know) if I would have just stayed in a KBM car, we wouldn’t have a problem, right?” Busch said of his 2012 season, when he went 0-for-22 in Xfinity races while racing for his own team.
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