NASCAR officials have been rather inconsistent with their rulings on multiple occasions this season. Despite having an elaborate rule book, NASCAR seems to bend it or improvise for some reason. And Kyle Busch being rewarded for his position back on a late restart at Nashville Superspeedway was the latest example of that.

Ideally, when a caution is thrown, the cars have to maintain a reasonable speed that is similar to the rest of the field. But Kyle Busch decided to hit the brakes and was passed by multiple cars. So in theory, he would have been placed back in the grid on the next restart, but instead, he retained his position, starting fourth.

There has been a lot of chatter surrounding this incident since, and many even questioned NASCAR’s judgment call. However, NASCAR has now come out to explain why they decided to give Rowdy back his position, despite being passed by multiple cars.

Brad Moran explains why Kyle Busch was reinstated in his position

With just 3 laps to go in the race, Kyle Larson made an aggressive move on the first corner, which failed miserably. He was looking to pull off a bump and run on the #11, but he couldn’t get his race car to turn and rammed straight into Ross Chastain’s #1 Chevy. Kyle Busch was in the second row behind Chastain and wasn’t looking to end his race with a DNF finish. So he was quick on the brakes and decided to save his race car from the damage.

But to his surprise and that of many of those watching the race, he was restarting in his previous position. Sharing the reasoning behind the call, NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director, Brad Moran stated, “We don’t want to encourage drivers to stay on the gas and just bang it away through. What he did was, he avoided the incident and we deemed him not involved in that incident, he didn’t stop. If he stopped he probably would’ve ended up towards the back of the field.”

He further explained that the order for the next restart was set based on the scoring loop data, “It was loop number 4, and that was the last loop that leaders scored on. So it really comes down to do we determine him being involved in that wreck, and we did not determine him being involved in the wreck. We determine that he avoided being involved in the wreck.”

In the end, this call wasn’t enough for Kyle Busch to save his sinking ship. He was once again involved in a wreck during the overtime run, which ultimately ended his hopes of a decent result at the Nashville Superspeedway.

Busch can’t seem to catch a good break, despite a strong run

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The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season has been nothing short of a nightmare for the 2-time champion. However, he was on the cusp of bringing home just his third top 5 finish of the season at Nashville. Early in the race, the No. 8 Chevy was just off the pace and was lapped by the race leaders. But as the race resumed after the rain break, he surprisingly made his way up in the field. At one stage, he was trading blows with the likes of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson for track positions.

But once again, he was short on luck, as his hopes for a top 5 result or potentially a win were derailed by a wreck late in overtime. Most of the lead cars were running low on fuel, and with multiple restarts stretching the length of the race, it was inevitable that they would drop dead at some point in the race. Unfortunately, Larson’s No. 5 car was the first to tap out, and in the process, it took out Busch from the race as well.

As the race went green again, the No. 5 HMS Chevy just stalled on the front stretch, and Busch’s No. 8 wasn’t able to escape the momentum of the traffic behind him. Rowdy’s race car was turned outside and was sent ramming into the safer barriers. What could’ve been a turning point in Busch’s season soon added to his streak of DNF results. And with just seven races left in the regular season, his chances of making the playoffs are looking pretty grim.