Bubba Wallace’s Spotter Freddie Kraft Opens Up on the Kyle Busch Penalty at Richmond

At the Richmond Raceway, disaster struck for Kyle Busch as he got a black flag. As it turned out, there was a piece of tape stuck to his car’s front grille. This happened in the early stages of the race, but the call came in the final few laps. Naturally, this baffled many, because the call could have come so much earlier from the officials. In light of this, Bubba Wallace’s spotter Freddie Kraft spoke on the matter.

He said, “What they need to do, they should just put a camera in every pit box. So that they can see whether or not, the guys stuck the tape on. We actually have that. I don’t think it takes an hour and a half to look at the f***ing video and see if you stuck a piece of tape on or it it fell off. That’s just ridiculous on a lot of fronts. We’re now racing against an ‘illegal’ car. How much it actually benefitted them, I don’t think at all. For Kyle Busch’s sake, its 222 laps of, they could change their entire strategy.”

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What is the impact of the Kyle Busch penalty?

Obviously, this was not Busch’s fault at all, but he was a victim of circumstance. The blame mostly lies with the NASCAR officials for waiting so long to inform Joe Gibbs Racing. As Kraft said, they could have informed the driver much earlier and allowed the team to adjust their strategy accordingly.

Instead, the delayed response compromised the #18 driver’s race and he missed out on a chance to win. If the call came within a few laps of the incident taking place, Busch could have served the penalty early. Then he would have been able to put his head down and charge up the order, mounting a potential comeback. Unfortunately, that did not happen and the late penalty cost him dearly.

READ MORE: NASCAR Spotter Brett Griffin Suggests Officials Had Extra Pair of Eyes in Catching the Illegal Tape on Kyle Busch’s Car in Richmond