Busch had a run-in with Tony Stewart on Monday at Dover. Both drivers wrecked their rides. Busch took the confrontation one step further when he pulled alongside of Stewart on pit road, forcing one of Stewart’s crew members to jump out of Busch’s way.

Through the week, there had been speculation that Busch would be parked for a race — his stunt on pit road led to NASCAR parking him at Dover. But no suspension came of it; instead, Busch was docked 100 driver points, Roger Penske lost 100 owner points and Busch was fined $100,000.

(We can only wonder if Busch yelled for his mommy and screamed as Mike Helton announced his verdict.)

So, he’s racing at Pocono at least.

But then Busch wrecked in Friday’s practice and is now going to a back-up car — at least it happened before qualifying.

OK, so that’s not quite as bad as the pen. Busch will start 27th.

• HEY, WE’RE BACK AT POCONO: Ready for five hours of ugly racing on Sunday?

Even Kevin Harvick admitted that Pocono isn’t as fun since the drivers don’t shift going into Turn 1 anymore.

“It’s not really as fun, but it’s still challenging to get your car to work,” he told SceneDaily. “You’ve got to get off of Turn 3 to make time down the front straightaway, and Turn 1 is really bumpy. So it has different challenges, but it’s just not quite as challenging as it used to be.”

It’s not as fun for Harvick and it’s not much fun for anyone. Traffic is miserable (even more so than your standard Cup circus) and the race takes forever to finish because it’s nearly impossible to run 20 laps without someone wrecking.

On the bright side, Kyle Petty will debut in the TV booth on TNT. That should be interesting, as Petty is one of the most knowledgeable people around.

(Photos by Terry Renna/Associated Press [Busch] and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office via AP [Hilton])