Joe Gibbs’ enabling of Kyle Busch causing Joe Paterno-like fall

November 10, 2011 24 Comments »

Joe Gibbs and Kyle Busch, seen here last year at Richmond, aren't smiling anymore. Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

Let me go ahead and get this out of the way: From a depravity standpoint there is no comparison between Joe Gibbs giving Kyle Busch too much leash and what Joe Paterno let happen at Penn State.

But from the standpoint of legendary czars letting inaction and hypocrisy kill their careers, it’s practically the same story.

Gibbs, like Paterno, always promoted the right things. For Paterno it was a college library, for Gibbs a savior. But meanwhile both saw destructive behavior and looked the other way. We all know where Paterno failed. But don’t forget that that Gibbs failed to act as Busch continued to put lives in danger both on and off the track.

Busch drove 128 miles an hour in a 45 mile per hour zone on May 24, 17 days after he sent Kevin Harvick’s unattended car down pit road at Darlington, which could have done untold damage.

It was time for Gibbs to act at that point. How could have Busch been at anything other than zero-tolerance after the double middle-finger salute to a NASCAR official at Texas last year? The fact that sponsors like M&Ms and Z-Line Designs are finally distancing themselves — at least temporarily — is a clear signal to Gibbs: “You had your chance to nip this in the bud. Now, since you didn’t act, we have to.”

That’s why Z-Line Designs has asked for Denny Hamlin to be behind the wheel for the Nationwide finale at Homestead. That’s why Busch will have Interstate Batteries on the car for the final two Cup races while M&Ms takes a break.

Remember, this isn’t the first time Gibbs has preached purity, then ignored his responsibilities. He never really disciplined Tony Stewart, who in his final year with Gibbs had matured so much that he was roughing up a USAC official when he didn’t get his way. Even after Busch’s lack of control got to the point of him using his truck as a loaded gun against Ron Hornaday at Texas, Gibbs was downright mousy. In an interview with ESPN’s Dr. Jerry Punch, he merely said he trusted NASCAR’s judgment. Gibbs wouldn’t even give a definitive answer when Punch asked something as simple as whether Busch made a mistake? Some leadership!

Gibbs’ lack of action drips with arrogance. Jack Roush is about to win the Nationwide title and could win the Cup title with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Carl Edwards, respectively. Yet, he has no sponsorship for Cup champ and Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth and has run Nationwide races with three unsponsored cars at times this year. In that kind of atmosphere, did Gibbs think he was above reproach just because he penned a religious book called “Game Plan for Life”?

Seems like Gibbs should have called an audible when it came to Busch long ago. Now, it might be too late.

Late Thursday M&Ms announced they would stay off the No. 18 car for the rest of the season and come back next year “with the expectation that no future incident take[s] place.”

Considering Gibbs’ lack of leadership, it’s only a matter of time.

  • http://Jayski Rob Amyotte

    I was thinking the same when M&M and Z-line did not want him in the car Joe had the chance to do the right thing, that he should have done right from the beginning.

  • Joe White

    I would love to see M&Ms say goodbye to Gibbs and sponser that Champ, Matt Kenseth or that Daytona 500 winner, Trevor Bayne in a Roush Ford. Maybe that would send a message to Gibbs. But I doubt it.

  • Gary

    “Busch continued to put lives in danger both on and off the track”. What sport are you covering? The one where 40 guys drive 200mph just inches from each other? That’s what I thought. For a minute there I thought you were covering flag-football. And the title of your article was shameful even though you took the first paragraph to say ‘not really’. You can’t speak to Joe Gibbs’ leadership based on how he handles a couple of incidents. There’s only so much a leader can do. He can’t ride shotgun or hold these guys’ hands every moment. I would put it to you that Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch are still racing today because of Joe Gibbs’ leadership, not in spite of it.

  • http://Jayski's Jesse

    Thank you for saying what should be said, I have said all along that Joe Gibbs and JGR are the real problem, if you can be a brat and your parents let you continue to do it, you will never learn right and wrong in life, you always feel like when people avoid you in life, they are the ones that are messed up. Kyle will never learn with the people he has around him now.

  • Steve

    You are full of it! You know nothing about racing, it’s history and the history of the Foyt’s, Andretti’s, Earnhart’s and other “legends of the sport. BTW, regarding the Penn Sate situation, the proper handling of inappropriate sexual behavior among your direct reports is:
    1. Report it to your superior, so that they may get the HR staff who are trained to handle this type of situation involved and investigate it legally.
    2. Stay out of their way and DO NOT engage the subjects of the involved in the investigation (a legal issue).

  • John McManus

    Not long ago silly people had Lagano out and Carl Edwards in to please Home Depot. Now M&M out to please someone undefined? M&M said they had their image removed, not that they pulled their money ( breach of contract).

    Gibbs is fully sponsored for a reason. That reason should stand the team in good stead for 2012.

  • Charlie

    Woa, that is a horrible comparrison. Paterno was involved in not reporting sodomy and sexual abuse to a person age 10 by one of his senior assistants. To compare something as trivial (respectively) to those antics is just not appropriate. You need to really think about what you are using as a comparison.
    A felony to bad judgment on the track? Come on.
    What happened at Penn State over the years is a crime, predatory, on a MINOR. To compare Joe Gibbs’ handlings of Kyle Bush to that tragedy is unwarrented. Think again.
    Geez

  • Kathleen

    How can you even compare the two? Absolutely disgusting that a so-called journalist would even compare these two events! How would you feel if you were the parent of one of those children?

  • JJS

    I agree with you. It wasn’t until NASCAR got angry did Gibbs (seemingly) did do anything. It was when Gibbs got hit in the wallet did he act and then it was to stop the leaking, not fix the problem.

    Mentioning how the team going from 6th to 11th in points and how it affects him should clue you in to what Gibbs is all about.

    Now that this is all said and done it appears all Gibbs did was try and keep Kyle in the car.

    The lame performance of the 18 last week at Texas followed by Gibbs calling another Nationwide driver (Aric Almirola) and not someone from his own team (Truex or Scott) show he was scamming to keep Kyle in the car. This surely wasn’t to please the sponsor. This was done to give the impression no one else could was available or could compete in that car.

    What does this tell you?

    No apologies to the driver/team Kyle assulted and no apologies to his truck series sponsor. Again, what does this tell you?

    I plan on writing Mars a letter asking them if they would please consider sponsoring another team and driver in 2012. So many teams/drivers looking that this should be easy.

    In my letter, I will mention that the majority of races Kyle has won their name was not on the vehicle. I will mention that while I won’t stop buy or boycott their products I would certainly buy more of them if they sponsored someone else.

  • Josie

    Geez..I don’t know where to even begin. There are so many more parts and pieces behind the scene of this entire “Comedy of Errors” to write a column picking apart the players is ludicrous . So I get it..you could have reined in Stewart..and now you have a handle on how to handle Busch! Good job! I bet the Redskins are sorry you weren’t there to lead their team..but you still have a shot to head up JGR! Why I bet if you lead JGR they would have… how many championships? (probably 3 less tgen they have now!) Let it be..Gibbs has done fine without everyone pointing out his shortcomings, I’m sure he’ll be able to carry on. M&M’s. Zline, and Interstate Batteries were not forced to stay with Kyle so I imagine they are looking at the big picture! Maybe more of us should….

  • Jackie

    To compare the two shows how F’ing stupid you are

  • Big Henry

    The author is a complete IDIOT for even considering to make any comparison to the horrors that Paterno and his ilk tolerated.

    As for Mars, who cares. There won’t be a shortage of suitors for Kyle Bush.

  • http://jayski Dolores

    I cannot believe you are comparing Joe Gibbs to Paterno! you ought to ba ashamed to call yourself a so called journalest. I understand that you feel that Joe Gibbs should be more tough on Kyle and that by him not doing so, reflects badly on him, but my god you could not have come up with a better comparrison.

  • Robert

    You are a sick individual for even beginning to compare the two incidents.

    My God!! Is there no level the media will stoop to in trying to make a headline?

  • cecil perkins

    was so surprized after being connected with nascar fo 62 years that KYLE BUSCH was the first driver to wreck any one that put them in the wall first. guess you missed out on D W, RUSTY, CALE, THE FLOCK BROTHERS , FIRE BALL, HERB THOMAS, AND MANY MANY MORE AND LETS NOT FOR GET DALE SR. KYLE IS GOING TO RACE IN NASCAR AND WIN RACES SO YOU THE SPEED , ESPN AND FOX ANGELS SHOULD JUST GET OVER IT. WE GOT A CUP TO TALK ABOUT. THANKS

  • Steven Rose

    You are an idiot and completely unprofessional as a journalist. This is without one of the most inaccurate articles I have ever read in over 40 years of being around Motorsports. It serves to illustrate and show both your inability for not only having your facts straight and in order as to if things like this have happened prior but also your obvious dislike for Kyle Busch personally. Go back to Texas of last year, same weekend but the Cup race. Jeff Burton in the 31 car drills and drives the 24 car into the wall off turn 2 because he is pissed because he felt Gordon had drove over him coming to caution. Well, and then we all know what happened afterwards. Only differences is that this Kyle Busch and that is the ever nice Jeff Burton. I have worked with Jeff Burton very closely in past years and yes he is extremely nice. But I also know that put him behind the wheel and he is a different beast. They ALL are. He just did a much better job of downplaying his intent and mistake, basically lied. Kyle on the other hand was honest in what he did. Don’t get me wrong, Kyle was wrong in what he did, he lost it. It was the perfect storm set up by a series of event leading up to that weekend, some his doing many not. But your article is without question, the opinion of a impartial and biased journalist.

  • Brad

    I think your sponser should “fire you” for writing this s***** article.

  • Mud Bone

    You are 100% correct.

  • Mud Bone

    This piece is 100% correct and any of you people that think different don’t know crap.

  • midasmicah

    While Kyle Busch deserves to be punished, your comparison to the Joe Paterno situation is way out of line. To connect Joe Gibbs with child molestation shows a total lack of tact and a lot of ignorance.

  • admin

    Never did I connect Joe Gibbs to child molestation. You obviously didn’t read the column.

  • Me

    How you get linked to Jayski I’ll never know. But you my friend are an idiot with this comparison. You need to be smacked. Hard.

  • Dean Patton

    Wow, the media is just plain nuts. There is nothing on any record to suggest that Joe covered anything up. In the record it is reported that Joe went to two people in charge of the Campus Police. Stop the bash in both sports and do your job, report on sports, not National Enquirer garbage. It is so troublesome that in this day and age people in the media still think they are Judge, Jury, and Executioner. When did we change “Presumed Innocent Until Proved Guilty”, when did we start allowing Lynch Mobs to reign? I happen to like both of the two people written about here. I do not condone intentionally wrecking anyone, but Please don’t tell me the Dale Earnhardt never intentionally wrecked anyone. And he is still my #1. Kyle was wrong, and has paid, when is enough enough? Carl Edwards did this just a few years back and he found out that messing with another driver that way is a mistake. Kyle, Joe Gibbs, Joe Paterno….. get a life and write about Sports. It’s fleeting, and what Sandusky may have done to those boys will live with them forever. Let them have their day in court, end this Media madness. Sandusky will have to live with his transgressions here and in the hearafter…. it may be real hot for a long time. A Grand Jury does not make it so either my friends. It has to go to a jury, and much of what the Grand Jury was told will not even get to a jury’s ears. Need to learn the Legal system, before you start spouting things you will never get to. I have worked in the system for over 30 years as a Homicide/Sex Crimes Detective so I speak with some knowledge. Now I sit on in judgment on cases such as this and believe me it will not be easy to get justice for the victims if the media keeps running around like a lynch mob!

  • http://jayskis.com Larry

    I have been saying both Nascar and Joe Gibbs are both responsible for Kyle’s actions. Neither one of them have given him any meaningful punishment until last week when Nascar made him sit out the races. Kyle should have been suspended for the last two weekends and placed on probation for the entire year of 2012. Now, when the new year is here Kyle will have a clean sheet to wreck someone since he will no longer be on probation. And, it will happen again it’s just a matter of time. Liston folks, a $50,000 fine is nothing to Kyle who probably makes over $10,000,000 a year. How many fines and how many times has Kyle been on probation? I don’t know the answer but it has been multiple times and I can almost bet you it’s more than anyone else in the garage. You know the thing about it is Kyle could have injured Hornaday and he did pretty much take him out of championship contention which means more to a driver than any money. How can Joe and Kyle rectify that problem? They can’t. Folks, the thing that makes this event so bad is the fact that Kyle has been in trouble many, many times and has wrecked many drivers in all three series many times and a lot of them were just racing deals where he didn’t get any punishment. And, I don’t want to hear about how great of a driver Kyle is. He has no Cup Championships and is out of this one. He has padded his record racing in truck and Nationwide series against young and over the hill drivers who don’t have the equipment and crews that Kyle has. Do you think Kyle would have won all those races if Jeff Gordon, Steward, Johnson, Edwards, Kenseth would have been running in the trucks and nationwide series? Of course not. But, a lot of folks think that he is so great for winning all those races but with competition from the drivers mentioned he wouldn’t have won nearly as many. Again, NASCAR and Joe Gibbs have created the “monster” and if they don’t get him under control for good he might very well injure or kill someone in his next Kyle moment and the blood will be on Nascar and Joe Gibb’s Hand.