Is Kyle Busch NASCAR's Worst Cheater?

Report: Busch Needs Illegal Tires to Steal $5K Late Model Win

Kyle Busch may have taken his record of bad decisions and poor judgment to a new level.

If reports are true, Rick Hendrick and Kellogg's need to take very serious action against Busch. Teams considering hiring Busch need to think again.

Travis Barrett, the auto racing writer for Central Main Newspapers reports the following on Kyle Busch's Super Late Model race in Epping, NH on his blog:

He changed his right side tires after his crew, according to two different sources, purposely punctured the tires to make them appear flat. Busch then charged up through the field, rallying back to win in the No. 51 supplied by PASS marketing director and former team owner Steve Perry.

Changing tires that are anything but flat is a big-time no-no in the PASS series, even in a $5,000-to-win, 200-lap feature like the one at All-Star Speedway. Intentionally flattening your tire is cheating. Plain and simple. This isn't some NASCAR Nextel Cup Series "gray area." It's like stopping on the frontstretch to intentionally bring out the caution flag -- times 10 -- and then punting the leader into the turn 4 fence to get your lap back.

Another in depth article here reports that PASS racing series officials subsequently penalized Busch two laps for the illegal tire change, dropping him to 16th and giving Mike Rowe the win. Rowe's son Ben won second place.

Now I'm not going to pretend that I know anything about Mike or Ben Rowe. But I've got a hard time believing that Busch needed that win more than Mike Rowe. If the Rowe's are anything like most of the guys running at local tracks around the country, that $5,000 first place purse is a very big deal.

Okay, so Busch couldn't win that race fair and square. Take the loss, sign some autographs, smile for the cameras and move on.

We aren't talking about unapproved brackets on a wing or a car coming in too low after post race inspection. If he did this, then he is a cheat and a thief. Not only that, if true, this is an example of the a man who has everything stealing from those who do not.

That is as disgusting as it gets in this sport. We are talking about a major embarrassment to NASCAR. Someone who would do this has no integrity and major issues.

HMS and Kellogg's should not wait another 19 races. They should find out what really happened here. If he did this, they cut their ties with him now. You can't be in business with someone you can't trust.

The big NASCAR media is not on this story. They need to be on it and start asking some tough questions.