When he was asked a racing related question after the Dover Nationwide Race, you could almost see the look on his face change. He went from someone happy over a great finish for his brother's new KBM Nationwide team, to this person that seemed to have lost his mind.
As far as the question, it was asked by Bob Pockrass of the Sporting News and it was as follows "Did it impact you...how you raced Justin(Allgaier) the fact your on probation? You said how he raced you..." that's when Kurt lost his mind briefly. I believe what Kurt said was meant as a veiled threat to the reporter. The reporter has stated publicly he didn't feel threatened, that however doesn't mean Kurt didn't mean it as a threat.
Many fans have said that the question wasn't a legitimate racing question. If you look at the question objectively he specifically asked if being on probation affected how he raced. So if it's your opinion it wasn't legitimate, I can buy that - if you believe that all of Bob's readers already know that probation does affect how Kurt would race. That being said no one could logically say it wasn't a racing question, heck the word racing was in the question.
I got the opportunity to find out from a writer that covers the NASCAR beat what a typical race deadline is. I did this so anyone that reads this will understand how little time they have to get their stories in to their editors. Here is what he told me:
"For the person writing a race story, likely 5-10 minutes after the race is over for a first story and then an hour or so after the winners interview for the rewrite. For other stories, they should be coming in about 90 minutes. Obviously if you have to wait outside the hauler, those can be extended. But the more volatile the situation, the quicker they want it once all the interviews are done.
For a night race, they are a little tighter. Newspapers likely have deadlines of 11:30 and then probably 12 or 12:15, and possibly earlier on Saturday nights. For websites, they hope to have everything within 2 hours after the race, if possible."
Now hopefully some of you understand why the reporters try to get the driver as soon as possible. It's not that they are hoping to "stir the pot", it's that they, just like all of us, have bosses to answer to. Most of us have done things for our jobs that we don't like. Now some of you will say "but Mike they all believe controversy sells", I would agree with that statement, because it for the most part is true. That dose not erase the fact that Kurt failed to follow the golden rule, "treat others as you want to be treated." Kurt had many other options, he could have said no comment, he could have said "I have already answered that question" or simply just walked away. Yes he would have gotten grief from a certain segment of fans, but that's better than the suspension. Feel free to leave comments, I don't mind passion but no cussing and attack the topic not the person.
