A Look Back at Kurt Busch's Past Two Years

By Carly Signor 

In 2004, Kurt Busch seemed to be on top of the world.  After all, he had just been crowned that year’s Nextel Cup Champion.  No one would have ever thought that eight years later, he would be trying to make a comeback after behavioral issues. Starting next weekend, Busch will be with a new team, driving the No. 78 for Furniture Row Racing.

AP Photo/ Nick Wass

"We were a team that worked really hard this year, and little things might have been overlooked here or there, but we gave it all we had,” Kurt Busch said after his last race with Phoenix Racing this past weekend.

It all started at last year’s Spring Richmond race.  After struggling with his car all race long, Busch went on to his public radio transmission and went on an explicit rant about his team at Penske Racing.

Later in the year, again at Richmond, Busch this time went after the media during a post-race press conference in which he told a reporter that he didn’t say something when they had it on tape that he did.  He later was shown the transcript and proceeded to tear it up.

Two weeks later at New Hampshire, Busch’s car was held during pre-race when the car’s rear-end failed pre-race inspections.  He was caught on TV swearing at one of the reporters. 

"Get the (expletive) out of my way,” Busch said to ESPN’s Jamie Little when she tried talking to him.

None of these incidents were as highly publicized as the last race of the season, though. After a frustrating race of not running competitively, Busch was caught on camera making an inappropriate hand gesture.  He then went on to explicitly yell at Dr. Jerry Punch, an ESPN reporter, which was caught on a cell phone and then went viral.  He was fined $50,000.  Penske Racing announced shortly after that they and Busch had decided to split ways.

Now with a new team, Phoenix Racing, Busch hoped to start the 2012 season and make a comeback.  But at Darlington, Busch was penalized for driving recklessly on pit road, speeding and almost hitting pit crew members.  He was again fined $50,000 and placed on probation until July 25^th.

Still under probation, Busch was caught once again on TV threatening a reporter at the Dover Spring race after he brought up the limitations of being on probation.

“It refrains me from not beating the (expletive) out of you right now because you ask me stupid questions,” Busch said.  “But since I’m on probation, I suppose that’s improper to say as well.”

This time, he was suspended from his next race at Pocono and his probation was extended to December 31^st.

With his final race for Phoenix Racing last weekend, he was once again surrounded by controversy.  After an accident, safety crews were responding to him when he took off without his helmet and medical bags still on the car.  NASCAR parked him for the rest of the race for not stopping.  He said he couldn’t hear NASCAR because he didn’t have his helmet on.

“Now NASCAR's yelling at me because I don't have my helmet on, and I'm trying to get it to the garage so the guys can work on it,” Busch said.  “Now I'm in trouble, now I've got this little storm right here. This is my life. I'm not complaining. I put myself in a lot of these situations.”