Jason Leffler Latest to Test NASCAR's "Have at it, Boys" Mandate

As the latest driver to test NASCAR's much-publicized "Have at it, boys" policy, Nationwide driver Jason Leffler found out Tuesday what the sanctioning body's follow-up punishment is: a three-race probation period.

Staying consistent, NASCAR levied the same mild rebuke to Leffler for wrecking James Buescher in Saturday's Nationwide race at Nashville Superspeedway that it did to Carl Edwards for intentionally wrecking Brad Keselowski in what turned out to be a far more serious incident at in the Sprint Cup race at Atlanta in March.

Assuming he doesn't get into more trouble, Leffler's probation will run until April 28 and will cover this weekend's race at Phoenix as well as the events at Texas and Talladega.

In the Nashville race, won by Kevin Harvick, Leffler came back out bent on revenge against Buescher after an earlier encounter between the two put him in the wall. In the first incident, on lap 43, Buescher's No. 1 slipped up the race track in turns one and two, making contact with Leffler's black No. 38. Leffler spun and backed hard into the outside wall, effectively ending his day. But the repairs made by his crew got him back in the race -- albeit many laps down.

The second act of the Buescher-Leffler scuffle flamed up when Leffler slid high off of turn four as the pair were side-by-side on lap 143 and appeared to force Buescher into the frontstretch wall. The crash apparently broke an oil line on his No. 1 Chevrolet as fire broke out under the hood.

Buescher scrambled from his ride as the damage meant his race was over and Leffler was promptly parked for the remainder of the race by race officials, who deemed the contact as intentional and unnecessary.

Leffler, though, didn't see it as quite the egregious move.

"I always get penalized for things that I don't do on-purpose," Leffler said afterward.

On purpose or not, Leffler certainly has been the target of NASCAR's ire several times over the last few years thanks to on-track behavior.

A year ago in the Nationwide Series season-opener at Daytona, Leffler earned a five-lap penalty for a wreck with Steven Wallace in turn three. As with the Nashville incident, Leffler didn't appear to try to explicitly wreck Wallace, though NASCAR's eye caught it in that light.

Much was the same in one of Leffler's most famous incidents back in 2004.

That season, Leffler was competing in the July Nationwide race at Daytona with several of the crossover Sprint Cup stars. With a lap to go, Leffler rode to the outside of leader Michael Waltrip.

Waltrip slid ahead of Leffler coming off turn two and tried to lay sole claim to the lead. Leffler, though, didn't appear to lift and nudged the rear end of Waltrip's self-owned No. 99, spinning it to the grass.

No caution waved and the race continued down the backstretch to the checkered flag with Leffler out front but Dale Earnhardt Jr. closing quickly. Earnhardt Jr. had a big run to the outside in turn three -- a move Leffler attempted to block.

Instead, Earnhardt Jr. got just alongside Leffler as they squeezed into the outside wall and Mike Wallace dove underneath to take the lead and the win. The contact killed Earnhardt Jr.'s momentum and his No. 81 Chevrolet fell to a 17th-place finish.

Earnhardt Jr. didn't mince words after that event.

"You ever been so mad you didn't care if you lost the fight or not?" Earnhardt Jr. said then. "Leffler was just running too crazy at the end. I know he wants to win, but you've got to do it without making a lot of enemies."

Leffler crossed under the checkered flag in second, but NASCAR later penalized him for rough driving and dropped him to 13th place in the official standings -- a move by the sanctioning body that had little or no precedent, nor was there an obviously definable reason why NASCAR chose 13th place for Leffler's finishing position.

NASCAR's basic response thus far? Park the offending driver.

The punishment was first showcased after the Carl Edwards-Brad Keselowski brouhaha at Atlanta in March when Edwards was forced off the track by NASCAR for spinning, and ultimately flipping, Keselowski as retaliation for an earlier incident. On Saturday, it was applied to Leffler.

Nationwide Series director Joe Balash -- the primary decision-maker on how he sanctioning body reacts to incidents during an event -- said after Nashville that he felt a "line had been crossed" by Leffler that led to NASCAR's punishment.