NASCAR VP/Integrated Marketing Communications David Higdon yesterday said that suspended driver Kurt Busch "formally has accepted" the governing body's "terms to be eligible for reinstatement," according to Jeff Gluck of USA TODAY. Busch was suspended Feb. 20 after a Delaware family court commissioner said that it was "likely Busch committed an act of domestic violence against ex-girlfriend Patricia Driscoll" at Dover Int'l Speedway last September. Higdon said that NASCAR "worked with an outside expert -- which it is not naming -- to come up with the guidelines." NASCAR is "not going into detail about what the guidelines are," and there is "no timetable for how long the program might take" (USA TODAY, 3/3). In Charlotte, Jim Utter noted Busch's eligibility for reinstatement "may end up being affected by issues outside of his control." Higdon said that NASCAR "established terms for Busch's possible reinstatement based solely on the facts the sanctioning body has." But even if he "were to complete all of NASCAR's requirements to its satisfaction, it's still possible Busch could remain indefinitely suspended." That is because the Delaware Attorney General "has yet to decide whether to charge Busch criminally for the same incident." In effect, Busch "remains in suspension limbo because regardless of what Busch does for NASCAR in the coming weeks, the last obstacle to his reinstatement rests in a decision the Delaware Attorney General seems in no hurry to make" (CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.com, 3/2).
