DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - NASCAR has suspended driver Kurt Busch for an indefinite period of time, effective immediately, which means he will not be in Sunday's Daytona 500.
"Given the serious nature of the findings and conclusions made by the Commissioner of the Family Court of the State of Delaware, NASCAR has indefinitely suspended Kurt Busch, effective immediately," NASCAR said in a statement. "He will not be allowed to race nor participate in any NASCAR activities until further notice."
The former champion and current driver for Stewart-Haas has spent the last six months embroiled in a dispute with his former girlfriend Patricia Driscoll. The precipitating event was an incident at Dover, Del., last fall in which Busch allegedly choked Driscoll. During that Sept. 26 incident at Busch's motor home, Busch claimed he simply "cupped her head" and she struck her head by accident, while Driscoll claimed she was choked and thrown into a wall.
In the subsequent protective order hearing, Driscoll and Busch threw increasingly severe charges at one another, with Busch saying Driscoll claimed she was a trained assassin. In the end, the court sided with Driscoll, approving a protective order against Busch. Still unresolved are criminal charges against Busch; local police have completed their report but no charges against Busch have been filed.
Busch's attorney fought back on Thursday, seeking to reopen the protective order and charging that Driscoll had perjured herself. On Friday, Kent County commissioner David Jones released a report that indicated Busch's "actions on that occasion constituted conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening or harmful."
Jones' decision reads, in part:
The court is satisfied that the evidence presented at trial established that it is more likely than not that on September 26, 2014, Respondent committed an act of abuse against Petitioner by manually strangling Petitioner with his left hand on her throat while placing his right hand against her chin and face, causing her head to forcefully strike the interior wall of Respondent's motor home, thereby recklessly causing physical injury to Petitioner and recklessly placing Petitioner in reasonable apprehension of physical injury. The Court further finds that Respondent's actions on that occasion constituted conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening or harmful.
In granting Driscoll a protective order, Jones ordered Busch to remain a "practicable" distance from his ex-girlfriend and that he be evaluated “for mental health problems related to anger control and impulse control."
NASCAR had waited for further outside confirmation before taking action.
Domestic violence issues have surged to the forefront of sports in recent months, largely as a result of the NFL's inconsistent punishment of violators such as Ray Rice, and the last perception any league needs to have is that it doesn't take domestic violence seriously enough. The Friday release of the highly critical report left NASCAR with no real option but to levy some form of punishment on Busch.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.
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from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/1CXamU3
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