Kurt Busch faces career crossroads after indefinite suspension
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Scrawled on the window of Kurt Busch's garage stall at Daytona International Speedway, the court of public opinion had issued a preliminary verdict.
"41 Ray Rice."
The sign appeared Friday, less than three hours after the release of a protective order stating Busch "by a preponderance of the evidence ... committed an act of domestic violence" against his ex-girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll, at Dover International Speedway on Sept. 26. NASCAR's decision to suspend the 2004 Sprint Cup champion indefinitely had been announced within the hour.
Already, a Sharpie intended for autograph-seeking had been used to draw a straight line from Busch to Rice, who was caught on camera abusing his future wife in an Atlantic City casino elevator a year ago. Rice was also disavowed by his sport, cut by the Baltimore Ravens and suspended by the NFL in September. Reinstated in November, Rice is still jobless.
Ramsey Poston, a crisis management expert hired by NASCAR after the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001, said Busch is at a career crossroads.
"Kurt Busch has been involved in a litany of physical outbursts during his career that add up to an unfavorable persona," said Poston, who works for Tuckahoe Strategy and before that served as NASCAR'S managing director of communications for nine years. "His reputation is in disrepair at this juncture and it needs to be seriously addressed if he is going to be able to compete as a NASCAR driver in the future."
The graffiti was gone Saturday, as was Busch, with Regan Smith set to replace him in the No. 41 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing. And though the American sports fan has proved ultimately forgiving through scores of scandals in recent years, the image consciousness of a sport fueled by marketing and sponsorships might be Busch's ultimate undoing.
"You can go back and you can take a look at guys like Michael Vick and Tiger Woods and even Kobe Bryant, and there's a little bit of a difference between team sports, and, obviously the individual athlete because they basically have to survive on their own personal brand," said David Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California Sports Business Institute. "So it may be a real challenge for him to recover any time soon depending on how this thing plays out.
"But I think we see time and again that if these athletes are truly serious about repairing their image and the damage that has been done, it will take them time, they have to be dedicated to it and it has to be believable at every turn, but it can be done."
Although there is no video as in the Rice case, the details of Busch's alleged abuse of Driscoll are graphic and could make the 36-year-old a pariah in a period of heightened awareness and sensitivity concerning domestic violence.
In his reasoning Kent County (Del.) commissioner David Jones, said he believed Busch "more likely than not" abused Driscoll "by manually strangling her by placing his left hand on her throat, while placing his right hand on her chin and face and smashing her head into the wall of his motor home, thereby recklessly placing (Driscoll) in reasonable fear of physical injury."
Even before the incident with Driscoll, Busch's behavioral scorecard was marked with incidents over more than a decade, including:
- In 2005, the defending series champion was cited for reckless driving after a verbal exchange with Maricopa County (Ariz.) deputies, suspended by NASCAR and fired by Roush Fenway Racing with two races left in the season.
- In 2011, driving for Team Penske, he insulted a team official over the radio during a race and had two incidents with reporters, eliciting a $50,000 fine from NASCAR. He was fired by the team.
-In 2012, driving for Phoenix Racing, Busch was suspended one race for threatening a reporter on pit road.
"There certainly is a cumulative effect that is going to further harm him as opposed to being a one-off or first-time or something that could be construed as a misunderstanding," Carter said. "When it happens over and over and over again, I think the general public, including corporate sponsors, might believe, rightly or incorrectly, that where's there's smoke there's fire."
Busch might enjoy some cover if he remains with Stewart-Haas Racing because he was recruited, signed and is sponsored by co-owner Gene Haas's company. It remains to be seen whether the billionaire, who has boasted of his kindred connection with the "outlaw" persona Busch fosters, would continue to leverage his machine tool company's image to underwrite Busch's career after a suspension. The sponsor market will be Busch's toughest rehabilitation process in the future.
"This is a very, very competitive sponsor environment, and sponsors have plenty of alternatives," Carter said. "And if for some reason this continued to go sideways on him, clearly his sponsors will have the ability to get out of the contract due to a breach of moral clauses."
Chevrolet, the manufacturer used by SHR, announced Friday that it had "suspended its relationship" with Busch.
Poston said Stewart-Haas Racing should be insulated from Busch's perception problems because "for the most part this is a Kurt Busch issue and not necessarily a SHR issue."
Still, there were fans in the Daytona International Speedway on Saturday who disagreed with the vandal who had scribbled on Busch's garage stall window. Among those, many felt uneasy regarding NASCAR's unilateral action in enforcing its broad "conduct detrimental to stock car racing" policy without any charges having been filed.
"I have mixed feelings about it," Tom Keith, of Savannah, Ga., said of Busch's suspension. "There has been so much publicity about all this in the NFL and other places that I think maybe some people tend to rush to judgment about everything. I know he has a bad reputation, but that should have nothing to do with this. I think I'd let him race, but it's not up to me."
Ultimately, it might be up to the sponsors.