Reports emerged on Saturday night that team owner Richard Childress may have ended up in an off-track confrontation with Kyle Busch following the end of the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 Truck Series race at Kansas.
Kyle Busch had taken exception to the way that Childress' rookie driver Joey Coulter made contact as he passed the #18 on the final lap, and gave the Richard Childress Racing #22 truck a bump in return on the cool-down lap after the chequered flag. The race was won by another RCR driver, Clint Bowyer in the #2, thwarting Busch's three-race winning streak.
But it seems that the team owner himself weighed in when the drivers returned to the pit lane. Reporter Ray Dunlap posted to his @truckpits Twitter account: "Hot news from the track. Grandpa Childress put a whipping on Kyle Busch in the truck garage. Look for big sun glasses on kubu [sic] sun," suggesting that Busch may be left sporting a black eye or two after the incident.
Dunlap actually mistyped, "KuBu" being shorthand for Kyle's brother Kurt who starts Sunday's Sprint Cup race on pole position, rather than "KyBu" for Kyle.
One tweet said that Childress had punched Busch in the face, while another online report quoted an unidentified pit crew worker from another team as saying that Busch had been in a headlock and was being pounded "pretty good" in the face before falling to the ground "in a defensive position." When he tried to get up, Childress is alleged to have promptly tried to punch him again.
The accounts seemed to suggest that it was 65-year-old Childress who instigated the altercation about 30 minutes after the end of the race. According to various reports, Childress removed his watch first and handed it to grandson Austin Dillon - who had himself been competing in the race - before walking up to Busch.
SPEED TV channel's own SPEED Center Twitter account seemed to confirm the overall story with a message of its own saying: "multiple witnesses tell SPEED there was a physical confrontation between Richard Childress and Kyle Busch after today's
NASCAR Truck Series race."
NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp confirmed that officials were looking into the reports and seeking to gather details from witnesses and the principals about the alleged incident.
Busch is already on probation for all
NASCAR events through to June 15 following his pit road confrontation with Kevin Harvick - who drives for RCR in the Sprint Cup - after the Darlington race in May. As well as being the driver of the #18, Busch is also the truck owner.