NA$CAR just announced the penalties against Kurt Busch for last week's pit road incident at Dover.

100 points, $100K, and probation until December 31st.

I call BS on the whole mess!

Apparently crew member safety is no longer a priority for NA$CAR.

For those that do not know, or did not see the whole thing, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart had some on track activities, and Kurt Busch obviously felt like Tony did something on purpose, and ultimately CHOSE to drive down pit road, INTENTIONALLY drive right up to Tony Stewart's car to have a discussion.

Not only was that stupid, but he also put Tony Stewart's jackman in a precarious position by causing him to have to jump up on the hood of Tony's car.

When you INTENTIONALLY use a 3400lb car as a potential weapon, you should be punished, not just hit with a penalty.

NA$CAR had an opportunity to send a message, and instead, the message they sent is that safety is not a priority with them.

I am not a Kurt Busch fan, so I might be biased to a certain degree, but it is absolutely incredulous to me that this arrogant little turd is still driving a race car. He is an incredibly talented driver, but I am convinced he rode the short bus to school.

I recall two incidents that happened back in the day, both at Atlanta I think, where crew members were killed. I remember the video of one guy flying through the air after being hit by his own driver, and I remember Ricky Rudd locking up his brakes, spinning around and hitting one of Bill Elliot's crew. In fact, I think that incident was the impetus for the modern day pit road speed limits.

Busch needs to made to watch those videos before he is allowed to race again. After watching that second video, Busch needs to sit down for an hour with Ricky Rudd. Rudd, of course, carries that awful burden to this day. Rudd's incident was an accident, and so not even he could tell Kurt Busch how it would have felt to go through life having hit a crewman because of a tantrum.

There is little doubt how Bill France Jr., the longtime heavy-handed ruler of NA$CAR would have dealt with Busch. Maybe he would have parked him for the rest of this season.

Mr. France was buried on Thursday, and his iron-fisted justice with him.

It is one thing to taunt Jimmy Spencer until he punches you in the face, as Busch did at Michigan in 2003; and to get into such a confrontation with Phoenix Police that you're handcuffed and hauled away, as Busch did in 2005.

But it's something else entirely when he comes tearing into the pits hell bent on scraping alongside Stewart's parked car, and displays the split-second judgment that any crewmen who happen to be standing in the way of grinding confrontation between two 3,400-pound cars can just fend for themselves.

Kevin Harvick got parked for a much less severe violation, and no less should have happened to Kurt Busch.

As I said, NA$CAR had a chance to send a message, and they did.

Boy, was it ever the WRONG message.

tks,