NASCAR Cup Series

Drivers need to stop on-track payback

Published Oct. 5, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

Larry McReynolds

I have always said that I have a lot of respect for both Kyle Busch and David Reutimann. I have said if I were to ever go back to being a crew chief and I could pick my driver to work with, it would be Kyle Busch.

The man is tenacious. The man can climb in anything and win races. He drives every lap like it’s the last lap of the race. I have the utmost respect for that.

On lap 52 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, it was pretty evident that David got loose and Kyle had a helluva run. Did Kyle need to push the envelope that hard that early in the race? Sure, there could have been a little more give and take there. I felt bad for David. He didn’t do anything wrong.

So now let’s move on to later in the race. Now I’ve been the crew chief many a day when we were running well, OK or bad and had our car wrecked. I could have bit steel into two pieces at that point. I would have wrung the neck of the driver that did that to my car if I could have gotten to him.

Did I ever, in 18 years as a crew chief, tell my driver to go wreck somebody? Absolutely not, but if I did, I honestly don’t remember it. I said it for 18 years as a crew chief and now 10 years as a commentator; I do not support using 3,500-pound race cars for retaliation. Like we saw in the spring at Atlanta Motor Speedway with Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, it can get a little dangerous.

Now the other thing I ask is do Kyle or David have to go back to the shop and repair their wrecked race cars?

Absolutely not – both guys will probably never see those cars again until they are brought back to the track to race. It’s the guys in the shop that have to suffer and spend time fixing both cars. It’s the owners of both teams that will have to pay for those cars to be fixed.

I still don’t condone it in any situation.

I don’t condone a crew chief, even in the heat of battle, challenging his driver to go wreck that guy. Park the cars after the race and I don’t care if you go over to the other guy with a jack handle. My point is, do it after the race. No one will ever be able to convince me that retaliating with race cars is the right thing to do.

Even on a perfect day, like Greg Biffle had with the win Sunday, a car will have to go through some extensive overhauls because it was just raced for 400 miles. Things move around on a car.

My point is even on a day when you don’t have any issues on the track, there is still a lot of work to do before that car can race again. Now in the case of Busch and Reutimann, both cars will need a complete new body.

I don’t think David Reutimann needs to race Kyle Busch any different than he races Jamie McMurray or Reed Sorenson, for example. I don’t believe Chase drivers should receive special treatment. Now, with that said, when we get down to the last couple races and we know who the main contenders are for the title, then we absolutely need to respect them more.

Sure you still race them hard and you just don’t move over to give them a position. You do need to respect them a little more because they are fighting for a championship. Right now, with seven races to go, these non-Chase racers don’t need to race the Chase guys any different than they have been.

Right now, I just don’t think those guys deserver preferential treatment. When we get down to the last couple of races, then sure, give those guys a chance to battle for the championship.