Kyle Busch appeared live on the Pat McAfee Show Friday from Indianapolis and pledged “payback’s coming” to Corey LaJoie after their incident last weekend.
Busch went in depth about the incident from Pocono Raceway where LaJoie hit his No. 8 Chevrolet in the left rear going into Turn 1. The contact spun the Richard Childress Racing driver with 40 laps to go. The field was fanning out on a restart where Busch was the lowest driver to the left on the racetrack.
As he explained, Busch blocked LaJoie. The contact came when LaJoie hit Busch in the left rear as he moved back toward the right to make the arch into the corner.
“Instead of just blending in behind me and making sure that he doesn’t crash the whole field, he clips me,” Busch said. “That’s like stupid. What are we doing? We’re going 190 miles an hour, and we’re going to wreck each other?”
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Busch didn’t have much to say in the crash’s immediate aftermath. Once cleared from the infield care center, Busch told reporters it didn’t matter what he thought when asked if LaJoie had been too aggressive. But he did acknowledge trying to block LaJoie’s run and that “some don’t lift.”
“Nah,” Busch said at Pocono about needing to have a conversation with LaJoie.
“He texted me and then he called me,” Busch told McAfee. “I didn’t even reach back out because he changed his story four times, so I’m like, ‘You’re just a liar. You wrecked me.’ I get it. It’s fine. Whatever. Payback’s coming.”
In talking to NASCAR.com after the race, LaJoie said a driver has to take momentum when they have it on a restart. LaJoie felt Busch blocked him twice, and he had a run after getting a shove from AJ Allmendinger.
“I was anticipating our bumpers lining up and then pushing him forward and him taking the lane,” LaJoie said. “But he blocked again when I had more position on him and [I] spun him out. … You have to be super-aggressive on restarts and sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug.”
LaJoie said he had no apology when asked what he would say to Busch. The Spire Motorsports driver felt it would be the same if the shoe were on the other foot.
But when recording his podcast, Stacking Pennies, the day after the race, LaJoie admitted he felt differently after reviewing the incident. In watching footage and in-car replays, LaJoie acknowledged he had to get back in line to make the corner. Additionally, LaJoie felt Busch slowed in front of him, leading to the contact, because he hit the rev limiter.
“The amount of time [Busch] was in the chip there was like 50 yards,” LaJoie said. “So, when he throws the initial block, I still had some forward momentum in relation to him. But then it evened out, and I was planning on trying to blend back behind him, but at the same time, I was committed to… get behind him is when he was in the chip. The amount he was in the chip, I didn’t anticipate his car losing that momentum relative to mine. I spun him (and) took out several good cars behind me, which I do feel bad about on Monday.”
Busch has heard everything LaJoie has said about the incident. The two-time series champion felt LaJoie “tried to blame me twice” before changing his story.
“Anyways,” Busch said as the conversation shifted to another topic. “I need to stop giving fame to those who don’t deserve it.”