NASCAR has denied Kurt Busch's initial appeal for reinstatement from the suspension handed down Friday afternoon.
Busch will not race in Sunday's Daytona 500. He'll be replaced by Regan Smith.
"We are very disappointed that our appeal was rejected by NASCAR's appeal panel," Busch's attorney Rusty Hardin said in a statement. "We are re-appealing immediately, per the proscribed process. We have significant and strong evidence that contradicts the Commissioner’s conclusions. In the end we are confident that Kurt will be vindicated and he will be back racing. Until then we will continue to fight on his behalf by ensuring that the entire truth is known."
The case will now go before Bryan Moss, the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer. Moss, the former president of Gulfstream Aerospace, will make the final decision. The appeal will be heard at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday night.
Even if Busch were to win the appeal, Stewart-Haas Racing has indicated it will go ahead with its plan to have Smith in the No. 41 Chevrolet. The car has been fitted for Smith and black tape has been placed across Busch's name above the doors.
Busch's name has already been scrubbed from NASCAR's merchandise page.
NASCAR suspended Busch indefinitely Friday after a Dover (Del.) court released its decision on a domestic dispute involving Busch and his ex-girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll. In the decision, Kent County (Del.) commissioner David Jones wrote that "more likely than not" Busch strangled his girlfriend during an argument inside Busch's motorcoach at Dover International Speedway on Sept. 26, 2014.
Busch appealed the indefinite suspension and spent several hours Saturday in front of NASCAR's three-person appeals board, which comprised of former NASCAR executive Paul Brooks, former driver Lynn St. James, and Kevin Whitaker, owner of Greenville Pickens Speedway.
The hearing was held at NASCAR's headquarters, just across Speedway Boulevard from Daytona International Speedway, where cars were qualifying for Saturday's Xfinity race. A few supporters of Busch stood around outside the building holding signs.
After making his case, Busch climbed into a silver SUV and left without speaking.
The former champion and current driver for Stewart-Haas has spent the last six months embroiled in a dispute with his former girlfriend, 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.
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