Last season, current NASCAR Truck Series driver Travis Kvapil was convicted in a court of law of assaulting his wife. There was no penalty handed down by the powers that be in Daytona Beach and Kvapil continues to race. He competed in the Truck Series’ season opener on Friday night, and will line up next weekend in Atlanta.
That, of course, was before the Ray Rice incident, which has clearly changed the thinking of so many professional sporting leagues in America. The former Baltimore Ravens football player was caught on video assaulting his then-fiancé in a Las Vegas elevator. It was incredibly damning footage that put an end to Rice’s season – and probably his NFL career as a whole – and touched off a firestorm of epic negativity aimed directly at Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Fast forward less than a year, and although a judge, in granting a protection order in a civil court for the polarising Patricia Driscoll – I wrote recently about her strange courtroom battle with the driver known as The Outlaw – decided that it was more likely than not likely that Sprint Cup Series star Kurt Busch assaulted her, there has been no criminal conviction, yet Busch has been suspended indefinitely.
Busch, the driver of the #41 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, appealed twice, but both were denied. With a few strikes against his name already, the Outlaw seems at long odds to ever pick up the pieces of his racing career.
It’s important to stress that Busch has been barred from contacting Driscoll by a restraining order from a civil court. He is yet to go to criminal trial. No charges have even been laid. Yet NASCAR has suspended him indefinitely. Compare that to the Kvapil incident, and there are double standards here, and controversial ones at that.
Clearly, NASCAR has pulled the trigger here to avoid the sort of PR nightmare that engulfed the NFL and continues to, but the key difference between Rice and Busch is that Rice was convicted. All that’s happened thus far to Kurt Busch is that he has been the subject of what is effectively a restraining order. I’m reliably informed that those are relatively easy to obtain.
Busch is yet to have charges laid against him in a criminal court, and imagine if he is never charged, or, perhaps, the charges are unfounded. The judge in Delaware did admit, during his explanation, that some of Driscoll’s testimony was unbelievable, and Busch’s lawyers say they have new evidence from those who have come forth since the ruling that will cast further doubt on the veracity of Driscoll’s statements and on her version of events.
What concerns me is the knee-jerk reaction by NASCAR. You can see why they have suspended Busch – violence against women should not be tolerated – but there are myriad reasons why they should’ve waited until a criminal court conviction. Regardless of the Ray Rice situation, Busch, like anyone else, is entitled to a presumption of innocence until such time as he’s proven guilty. It’s one of the pillars of law.
You’re innocent until proven guilty. If Busch is cleared of any wrongdoing, he’s understandably going to be upset that he’s missed out on a large portion of his salary (not to mention potential race winnings) and that, essentially, he’s been wrongfully suspended, his name dragged through the mud, particularly with Driscoll’s somewhat questionable and very visible PR campaign of late. It looks even worse with Kvapil being allowed to race after being convicted of the same thing.
As some folks observed on Twitter after the Busch suspension was handed down, when questioned about the differences between Kvapil and Busch, basically the answer was: that incident was pre-Ray Rice. Things have changed. The playing field is not the same. Lucky, for Kvapil. Desperately unlucky for Busch.
I don’t know whether Kurt Busch is guilty. That is for a court of law to decide, and his guilt, or lack thereof, isn’t so much the point of the issue. It’s the kneejerk way NASAR has done and suspended the driver already. Maybe they did it to avoid An NFL-type nightmare, but they’ve made their bed and now they must lie in it. They can’t rescind the suspension now, and nor can they undo the fact that they’ve pre-judged Kurt Busch on the facts presently at hand, without letting due process take course.
If NASCAR thought there’d a publicity nightmare if they allowed Kurt Busch to race the Daytona 500 on Sunday…well, it’s nothing compared to the one they’ll be inviting down on themselves if he’s found guilty. It seems like the sport’s governing body has convicted Busch before anyone else has, and there are almost certainly going to be major ramifications.
The case is being watched closely by a lot of people. Where it goes next will be very fascinating, and there are serious credibility and fairness issues on the part of NASCAR that may be called into question if Busch is free to go about his life.
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