Penske Racing announced on Tuesday that Pat Tryson will become crew chief effective immediately of the No. 2 Dodge driven by Kurt Busch. Tryson replaces Troy Raker who has served as interim crew chief of the team since Texas. Troy will return to his previous role within the Penske engineering department. Tryson, a 10-year veteran Nextel Cup crew chief, led Mark Martin to the Chase in each of the last three seasons while working for Roush Fenway Racing. Most recently, he served as crew chief for Greg Biffle and the No. 16 team.
NASCAR announced Friday that Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 2 Dodge in the Nextel Cup Series, has been penalized 100 championship driver points, fined $100,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31, 2007, for violating Section 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing - reckless driving; endangering a crew member on pit road) of the 2007 NASCAR rule book. Car owner Roger Penske has also been penalized with the loss of 100 championship owner points due to his driver’s infraction. The violation occurred on pit road during the race at Dover International Speedway on June 4. Busch crashed with Tony Stewart and showed his frustration by making contact with Stewart’s car on pit road. He was parked by NASCAR for the rest of the race. The penalty drops Busch from 11th in the championship standings to a tie with Bobby Labonte for 18th at 720 points behind leader Jeff Gordon.
It took long enough for a penalty to come out. While 100 points is a good start, he should have been parked for a few races. Kurt Busch is a terrible sport and a crybaby. Now my only question to NASCAR is: Would the penalty have been stiffer if he would have actually hurt someone? Just because he missed, doesn’t take away from the profound impact of what he did.