Wallace, Busch trade barbs following Richmond Nationwide race
By Rea White - Associate EditorSaturday, May 03,
RICHMOND, Va. – Kyle Busch and Steve Wallace first made contact on the track, then disparaged one another off of it at Richmond International Raceway Friday night.
The two were battling for position on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series Lipton Tea 250 when Wallace got a run coming off Turn 2 then went on to hit Busch’s Braun Racing Toyota.
That incensed Busch, who felt that Wallace should have gone around him instead of making contact.
“Steven Wallace got a better run off the corner than I did and instead of pulling out and passing, he hit me in the back end and jacked me up, jacked me sideways and luckily I was able to straighten it out and get in Turn 3 behind him and he probably knew I was going to spin him up so he moved up the track and let me go by him,” Busch said. “And we came home third and instead of him passing me clean and ending up third, he ended up fifth. Just being an idiot.”
After the race, Busch went up and leaned his head into Wallace’s car.
His comments?
“I basically told him that you mess with the bull, you’re going to get the horns, then he wanted to grab my helmet which is pretty childish again,” Busch said. “We’ll see what happens here in the future, and if he wants to play those games, he’s going to get hurt.”
Wallace offered his own version of events.
“I don’t know what he was saying, but I jerked him by the helmet just to rattle his cage a little bit and just to tell him I wasn’t happy with it,” said the Rusty Wallace Racing driver, who earned a career-best fifth-place finish in the race. “He’s just a little girl about it. I’d say it’s pretty bad when they call drivers introduction, everybody in the grandstands boos you.”
He said that no punches were thrown, but that Busch was obviously mad. Wallace seemed to think that Busch was making a big deal out of nothing.
“He’s just a big tall big-ear loser, I guess,” he said. “Don’t know what his deal is. He just got mad because I got in the back of him. Rubbing is racing here at the short track. I was racing as hard as I could, got in the back of him a little bit. And that’s racing. Sorry.”
As to where they go from here, Busch was asked if the two would talk later this week once calmer emotions prevailed.
That clearly doesn’t seem likely.
“That’s Rusty Wallace’s kid so I’m not sure you’re going to be able to talk to him much and get through his head. But we’ll see,” he said. “Probably I won’t [talk with him].”
I always respected Rusty as a driver, even when he whined... however, comma, this brat needs a spankin. Just what Nascar needs, some rookie clown with a big mouth to go out and ram cars for no reason, then bigtime badmouth the guy that was minding his own business. Yep, I sure we’ll hear more from Wallace. Hopefully it’ll be back on the arca circuit before he fades into oblivion.
(And I don’t even like Kyle Busch.)