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CUP: No Beating Around The Busch
As far as Kyle Busch is concerned, Juan Pablo Montoya is so last week...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted July 03, 2008   Daytona Beach, Fla.
Kyle Busch prepares to drive during practice for the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images Photo)

As far as Kyle Busch is concerned, Juan Pablo Montoya is so last week.

Busch, the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader, and Montoya, the former Indianapolis 500 winner and Formula 1 star, tangled late in Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

After bumping and banging repeatedly over the final 50 laps of that race, Busch brushed Montoya on the frontstretch under a late-race caution. Montoya responded by turning hard left and wrecking both cars — again, under caution.

This week at Daytona, though, Busch brushed off the whole incident. Asked if he’s spoken with Montoya since then, Busch said, “No. Did not.”

Asked if things had been resolved with Montoya, Busch elaborated – barely.

“That’s over with — that was last week.”

And he refused to be drawn into a debate about whether NASCAR’s only penalty to Montoya — a two-lap penalty that dropped him to 32nd at New Hampshire — was enough, Busch refused to get drawn into a debate.

“It’s NASCAR discretion at what they want to do to penalize people,” Busch said, sounding as politically correct as his former teammate, Jimmie Johnson. “So, I’m confident in their judgment. … I don’t have my say, so it don’t matter.”

Montoya, meanwhile, drew some admiration from Dale Earnhardt Jr. “You rarely see guys wrecking each other under caution,” said Earnhardt. “Juan is a real firecracker, man. He’s a good guy, but you just don’t push his buttons. You got to respect him on the race track. And he has to have that sort of mentality coming from Formula 1. He definitely doesn’t want to get pushed around.”

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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