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Texas Prompts Reflection On Kyle Busch, Johnny Sauter Suspensions

How Can NASCAR's Tire And Safety Issues Be Addressed?

Wrecking someone under caution is pretty uncommon in NASCAR … even though this past weekend at Texas Motor Speedway nearly featured two instances of the offense.

William Byron accelerated after a yellow had flown, nosed into the back of Denny Hamlin‘s Toyota and sent the No. 11 sliding through the infield in the Lone Star State. In the same race, also in the late stages, Ty Gibbs decided to door-slam Ty Dillon on pit road, which might’ve been a bit less of an issue had there not been officials and crew members in the general vicinity — individuals that could’ve easily been hit by Dillon’s No. 42 had he not retained more control over the car.

Once the Texas debacle was all said and done, Twitter lit up with drivers — Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski among them — addressing one or both incidents, calling for action on NASCAR’s part. More recently, in the wee hours of Wednesday (Sept. 28) morning, Erik Jones chimed in to add to the Gibbs discourse — his reply nearly tripling the likes of Gibbs’ initial tweet as of this writing.

All this prompts a look back on the most notable pair of incidents over the past 10-15 years, which concern Kyle Busch and Johnny Sauter.

Busch vs. Hornaday: 2011 Lone Star Showdown

Busch, full-time in the Cup Series for quite some time, was dueling with Camping World Truck Series title contender Ron Hornaday Jr. early in the 2011 Truck Series race at Texas for the second spot.

As they closed in on leader James Buescher, circumstances allowed Buescher to scoot away again and both Busch and Hornaday found themselves behind the lapped truck of Johnny Chapman.

Busch had the outside line but Hornaday made the squeeze, his No. 33 slamming into Busch’s No. 18 and putting both trucks in the wall.

With the caution out, both trucks rolled smoking down the backstretch and Busch accelerated into Hornaday’s bumper. Told to “get off of him” over the radio, Busch did the opposite: leaning on Hornaday even more and smashing the No. 33 head-on into the outside wall. Both trucks took hard hits.

Phil Parsons, immediately afterward, commented that NASCAR should suspend Busch for the rest of the…

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