Kyle Busch has become the first driver of the season to lash out at NASCAR after the Daytona 500. The Richard Childress Racing driver was given a DNF following his crash, with 14 laps left in the race. This was despite the presence of the Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP) that allows cars to re-enter the race after being involved in a wreck.
Advertisement
The reason behind Busch not being allowed to race again came down to some hazy rulemaking. He explained to the press, “I had four flat tires out there. And we have these air jack systems in the car, mandatory by NASCAR, and the guy carries around an empty air bottle to plug up to the car. So couldn’t plug it up so I could make my own return back to pit road. I said I just wanted a push.”
Busch had requested to be towed back to the pit road since he couldn’t make it back on his own. Instead of getting him to the pit road, NASCAR took him to a designated work area defined by the DVP. His crew replaced his tires and found nothing else wrong with the car. They made him take it back to the track to figure out if there was any other issue. But when he came back to pit road, under caution, he wasn’t allowed to leave.
Busch said, “And then was told that if we needed to work on it and repair it, you need to go back to that place (the work area in the Cup garage), but if you go back to that place, they park you.” He also added that he wasn’t given the three attempts that the rulebook mentions to make minimum speed since the race had not gone to green at the time.
Kyle Busch was frustrated with the NASCAR DVP procedures because he feels his team should have been allowed to continue to work on the car. They went back out under caution to see what was wrong and figured since it hadn’t gone back green, they could come back in and work on it. pic.twitter.com/bYdU4BExEq
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) February 17, 2025
NASCAR’s explanation for its approach with Kyle Busch
After having his tires replaced, Busch had gone out to the track to see if there was anything else wrong with his car. His team was under the idea that they could conduct further repairs based on his feedback. NASCAR claims that he did not make minimum speed under the green flag after making repairs in the designated work area.
So, when he went back to the pit road under caution, he broke the DVP. Veteran reporter Bob Pockrass clarified this: “NASCAR says the DVP rule is you can only leave the garage once to reach minimum speed, so since he left and never reached minimum (even though he came back when under caution), he can’t go back to the garage. And he can’t go to pit road for fixes in that situation (only fuel).”
Busch, however, was not satisfied with the explanations. He got into a rant on social media and accused NASCAR of not knowing its own rules or procedures. It is rather obvious that this isn’t the last that he has spoken about the new DVP.
