They may be some of the country’s most skilled drivers, but even NASCAR stars make mistakes on the road and Kyle Busch is one of them. In 2011, Rowdy had his driver’s license suspended for several days but that did not stop him from racing in the Cup Series. The stock car racing series might need a license of its own, but a regular driver’s license was not one of the prerequisites.
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So what was the incident with Rowdy around 13 years ago? Well, it was one of the most common road rules break – speeding. Only Busch was driving at 128 mph in a zone where the fastest you were allowed to go was 45 mph. The then Joe Gibbs Racing star was slapped with a hefty $1,000 fine and his license was suspended for 45 days.
That’s not all. The ramifications also included 30 hours of community service and a year of unsupervised probation. Back then Busch was very much into his Rowdy phase and it seems like that personality sometimes ventured off the track as well. Of course, he was young and a bit hot-headed at the time as well. Things could have gotten a lot worse for the 2-time Cup Series champion back then had it not been for an extraordinary defense by his lawyer to reduce his punishment significantly.
Dale Jr. on Kyle Busch's speeding ticket: "I’ve been guilty of the same thing myself, just been lucky enough not to get caught.”
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) May 26, 2011
Kyle Busch’s lawyer saved him a year’s worth of inconvenience
The initial punishment decided by the court on Busch was a lot more stringent than what others committing the same offense would have received. Rowdy’s lawyer at the time, Cliff Homesley, however, made sure that justice was served right.
“There have been numerous people charged with speeding in excess of 100 mph in Iredell County and all of those people, bar none, have walked out of here with some kind of plea agreement. We did not get that… We relied on the judge to make it somewhat equal, and keep in mind none of those had their license taken for 45 days,” the attorney said after the trial as per ESPN.
The report suggests that Rowdy’s driver’s license had initially been suspended for a full year before Homesley intervened. It would be interesting to see if that would be the case in today’s world for a similar offense.
