Avondale, AZ (Sports Network) - NASCAR driver Kyle Busch continued to be
apologetic for intentionally wrecking Ron Hornaday Jr. in last week's Camping
World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Since NASCAR suspended him from last weekend's Nationwide and Sprint Cup
Series races at Texas, Busch spoke with reporters for the first time on Friday
at Phoenix International Raceway. The sanctioning body took further action on
Monday by fining Busch $50,000 and placing him on probation for the remainder
of the year.
Mars Inc. and its M&M's brand, which serves as the primary sponsor of Busch's
No.18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team, announced this week that it would not
sponsor Busch's efforts in Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Phoenix as well as the
November 20 season-finale at Homestead, FL.
"As a proud member of the racing community, Mars and the M&M's brand strongly
support the partnership we have with Joe Gibbs Racing and are committed to
NASCAR. Yet, Kyle's recent actions are unacceptable and do not reflect the
values of Mars," Debra A. Sandler, who is the chief consumer officer of Mars
Chocolate North America, said in a statement released on Thursday. "While we
do not condone Kyle's recent actions, we do believe that he has shown remorse
and has expressed a desire to change. We believe our decision will have a
positive impact on Kyle and will help him return next season ready to win."
JGR announced that its longtime sponsor, Interstate Batteries, will be
featured on the No.18 car at Phoenix and Homestead. Mars will continue its
sponsorship with Busch's team during the 2012 season.
After being parked at Texas, Busch dropped from seventh to 11th in the Chase
for the Sprint Cup championship point standings. He has been mathematically
eliminated from title contention, as he presently trails leader Carl Edwards
by 100 points.
"Obviously, this has been quite a trying week for myself and my wife
[Samantha] and everybody at M&M's, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch Motorsports
and Interstate Batteries, all of the above," Busch said. "I'm upmost
apologetic to everybody that's been having to go through this situation, and
there's no one to blame but myself."
Busch said he had a telephone conversation with Hornaday days after the truck
race. He quipped that he "is still invited to [Hornaday's] house."
Team owner Joe Gibbs joined Busch during the press conference, which was held
prior to the first Sprint Cup practice held on the newly repaved and
reconfigured one-mile Phoenix track.
"Joe has been a huge supporter of mine through all of this, and I can't say
enough about him, all the folks at JGR and all the guys on my M&M's team, and
we're here to say that we want to learn from this and we'll move on," Busch
added.
Gibbs noted that Busch is facing penalties from JGR, including a fine. He
would not comment on the details of the forthcoming penalties. Busch will not
be relieved from his driving duties with the team after this season concludes.
"Kyle's penalties are going to be substantial," Gibbs said. "We also have
other actions that are going to be in place. There will be other financial
penalties and stuff that we're working through, and we'll continue to do that
as we go forward through this process."
Busch is not competing in Saturday's Nationwide race at Phoenix. Joey Logano
was originally scheduled to drive JGR's No.18 car for that event. Busch will
not run in the Nationwide season-ending race at Homestead as well.
There had been speculation that Z-Line Designs, the primary sponsor of Busch's
Nationwide team, asked JGR to replace Busch with Denny Hamlin in the Homestead
race.
"I take the responsibility for a lot of that, because we were kind of wanting
to go for the next two races to let Kyle focus on Cup, and so a lot of that
came from the race team," Gibbs said.
The Sports Network