Deliberately taking someone out is a lot different than a little rubbin' or a pure accident. If you discipline the drivers for incidental contact or accidents, that will kill the racing. Let them race and maybe beat and bang a little, but this incident was pretty clearly a road rage take out and should be treated as such.
We may never know for sure, but Nascar will once they examine the steering for themselves. We may never know, but Nascar will. They can spin that part any way they want to, and no one is in a position to challlenge that. I'm thinking Nascar will let this part go away.
Since no one was hurt, of bigger issue to me is the illegal assault we saw. You have both vehicular assault and physical assault. I've also read he shoved an official around too. You just can't have that sort of thing. Racecars wreck and you can't legislate that out, but you can punish people for outright assault.