Kyle Busch’s Late Penalty Splits the NASCAR Spotters of Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace & Justin Haley

Without a shadow of a doubt, one of the biggest talking points from the NASCAR Cup race at Richmond recently was the delayed penalty given to Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch for a piece of tape stuck on his front grill. Many found it ridiculous how it took the officials over 200 laps before they identified the illegal tape on the No.18 Camry and black-flagged it then, instead of much, much earlier.

This was something that also divided the spotter panel of the Door Bumper Clear podcast in their recent episode.

When Brad Keselowski’s spotter, TJ Majors, was asked whether it was ‘spot on’ what NASCAR did, he said, “Spot on. It was pretty obvious that it was up there.” 

“Not that obvious if it took 222-f******g-laps to see it,” Freddie Kraft, the spotter of Bubba Wallace, argued. “It was also bright green,” Brett Griffin, the spotter of Justin Haley, jumped in with some sarcasm.

“They did on lap 126, that’s when they did it. And then 200 plus laps later, they got a penalty,” Griffin continued. “How do you feel about that time-lapse? Is that right? He’s running illegal for 200 laps.”

Read More: Freddie Kraft Reveals How Bubba Wallace Spinning in Practice at Richmond Was More of a Save Than a Mistake

“It’s f******g ridiculous is what it is,” Kraft followed.

“It changed the whole outcome of the race that he got to run illegally for 200 laps,” Majors added.

Freddie Kraft explains why Kyle Busch and his team didn’t consider taking the tape off

Bubba Wallace’s spotter had a pretty simple explanation of why Kyle Busch’s team didn’t take off the tape before getting the penalty, even though they did in fact consider taking it off.

“I mean, you’re talking about, you’re taking it off, it sounds easy enough, right? But when you’re talking about a nine-second pit stop like they did have yesterday, it’s tenths of a second for a guy to hang a tire and then go up there and pull that tape off,” Kraft described.

Kraft argued that could be the difference in gaining or losing position.

“So if you’ve gone 200 laps without getting a penalty, why would you ever think you’re going to get one, and there’s no reason to take it off?”