It’s been a week, and the buzz around Watkins Glen is already gaining momentum, but one moment from the Texas race still refuses to die down. Kyle Busch made contact with John Hunter Nemechek in the closing laps, and although no penalties were initially handed out, NASCAR officials have now called in both drivers, setting up what could be an interesting turn of events.

Right after the penalties were distributed for the weekend at the Texas Motor Speedway, it was rather interesting to see that Busch was mentioned nowhere. However, his incident with Nemechek looked as deliberate as it could be. After a minor contact while Busch attempted to overtake Nemechek from the inside line, he door-bumped the latter and sent him into the wall. Both drivers lost positions.

If you turn back the clock a little, a similar thing happened at Bristol when Busch was not penalized for intentionally wrecking Riley Herbst. However, NASCAR’s Mike Forde did mention earlier that the authorities would have a conversation with Busch and the rest of the Richard Childress Racing management.

Adding to that, Cup Series Director Brad Moran also mentioned that John Hunter Nemechek would be part of the conversation. As enticing as it may sound to some fans, these discussions will understandably not result in a penalty.

“We’ll also talk to John Hunter and just make sure… when we get anything that’s a little controversial, we just check on the drivers and make sure they’re in a good place, so we don’t have something become bigger that we do have to get in the middle of,” Moran said, steering the situation away from a penalty.

While Busch was not given any penalty, it was Ryan Preece who was penalized in the race and docked 25 points for causing a very similar wreck. However, NASCAR’s reasoning for why Busch wasn’t penalized either was rather interesting.

Official explains why Kyle Busch wasn’t penalized

There are quite a few strong steps that NASCAR follows when penalizing drivers. They analyze the data and telemetry, and then come to a decision, and understandably, the driver’s intent also matters, especially when it is a wreck under investigation.

Even though the 41-year-old’s contact looked deliberate, as he slowed down and drove straight into the other car, Mike Forde revealed that they did not have enough data to prove it.

“The data told us that after the incident, he [Busch] was turning the wheel all the way left, just to go straight. So, we had a feeling that he had some pretty significant damage, and it was inconclusive on if that was a damaged vehicle that caused him to get into the 42, or if it was intentional, you know, the SMT data, there was zero things, in our opinion, that said, he did this intentionally, and rose to the level of penalty,” he said.

It is quite possible that there was some major damage to Busch’s car right after the first contact, which made it hard to steer straight and led to that contact. Moreover, there was no clear intent coming from Busch or any of his radio messages back to the team.

In the case of Ryan Preece, he had showcased his agitation towards Ty Gibbs right before he made the contact early in stage two, and the telemetry seemed to support it. Hence, NASCAR gave him the same penalty they gave to Denny Hamlin back in 2023. He had also had a very similar incident with Ross Chastain, but went on to admit on his podcast that he did it deliberately.

Meanwhile, Kyle Busch’s data suggested no deliberation, but it did ruin one of his best runs of the season. He was competing for 12 place when the initial contact happened, and he ended up finishing 20. The upcoming meeting may yield little, but it will be interesting to see if Busch adjusts his driving style.