After crashing due to rain at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch knocked the pace car in frustration
On Sunday, NASCAR returned to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the first time in almost two years. It was overcast as the NASCAR Cup Series drivers rolled off the grid.
Kyle Busch jumped out to the early lead. But, on lap four, rain drops began to fall. Drivers skated through turn one but none spun.
Driver jumped on the radio and began calling for a caution.
On lap 6, the rain was too heavy and the track was now a lake. Race leader Kyle Busch lifted early as he expected trouble. But, as he got to the corner, the rear of the car stepped out and he slapped the wall.
2nd place runner Martin Truex Jr did the same thing. Denny Hamlin spun and Alex Bowman made light contact with the wall. The rest of the field was able to avoid incident.
The race was red flagged after the crash. The race resumed a little over an hour later.
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NASCAR on the weather situation
“We were battling weather, throughout the region there” Elton Sawyer stated via Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
“We were in contact with our folks at the Weather Channel and looking at the radar. The race track was ready to go.”
“We have turn spotters around the facility and we also have our flag person. They’re not only flagging but also looking at what’s going on, on the race track as far as weather. Then, we have our pit in and pit out official.”
“As well as two NASCAR officials in the spotters stand who communicate with the team spotters who are communicating with the drivers.”
“On top of that, we have the instant messaging system in place. Were from the tower, we can communicate with all the crew chiefs on pit road. All systems were go,the race track was ready to race.”
“We’re an outdoor sporting event. Things happen, weather related, that can pop up on us pretty quick. And, that’s exactly what happened.”
“It’s unfortunate, but those thing do happen from time to time.”
“About the time our race director was going around the horn, checking with turn spotters… We were getting just a mist on the shield of the flagman.”
“At that point, our race director was getting ready to put it out [the yellow flag]. At the same time, the No. 18 and 19 were having the spin in turn one.”
“We’ll re-visit that tomorrow in our weekly comp meeting to see if there’s anything we missed.”
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On Kyle Busch bumping the pace car
After the incident, Kyle Busch drove away from the crash. He found the pace car and pushed on it’s rear bumper to show frustration with NASCAR.
“With everything that went on this weekend, that was something that had put on the back burner at that point in time of the race,” Elton Sawyer stated via Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
“We’ll discuss that through our debriefing tomorrow. And see what the next steps were there. Again, haven’t really dug into that. Very heat of the moment.”
“But, we will. It’s not like the first time someone has went up and kinda bumped the pace car. It’s a little bit different but we’ll discuss it tomorrow, if anything needs to be done.”
NASCAR typically released a weekly penalty report on Tuesday afternoon.
Related: NASCAR drivers crash as rain falls; Kyle Busch crashes into pace car (Video)
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Kyle Busch | Martin Truex Jr | Denny Hamlin | New Hampshire Motor Speedway | NASCAR
