Fight in my pit area, $300 fine
Fight on my frontstretch, $300 bonus
There were many different versions of this short track idiom back in the day but none more memorable to this Gulf Coast native than the one enacted by Mobile International Speedway promoter Lee Fields, who as both a racer and professional wrestler, understood the value of the occasional fisticuffs.
A $75,000 fine to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for punching Kyle Busch, a NASCAR record for a fight, is quite literally insane and a reflection of this front office not understanding their own audience and product.
Who are we trying to impress?
As a point of reference, $75,000 is also what Hendrick Motorsports crew chiefs Brian Campe and Greg Ives were issued in modifying the greenhouse on their race cars last April. In what universe are these two fines the the same level of actions detrimental to Stock Car racing?
The latter was an attempt to circumvent the rules to gain a competitive advantage while Stenhouse wanted to send a message of dissatisfaction, not by dangerously using race cars, but through man-to-man actions.
FOX News, CNN and ESPN sure as hell didn’t find Stenhouse to be in violation of actions detrimental by airing the footage on their air waves over the past three days. In fact, maybe NASCAR can take that fine money and put it towards a really nice thank you card to those major television networks for the free publicity.
Is the implication here that NASCAR would rather send his message the way Busch had in the first place? As long as its not a right rear hook sending a car head-on into the fence at an intermediate track, it’s fair game apparently.
Michael McDowell right rear hooked Bubba Wallace at Bristol in the 2020 All Star Race and Carson Hocevar right rear hooked Taylor Gray in the spring Truck Series race at Martinsville without punitive action so that’s acceptable.
Using race cars as weapons, even on short tracks, is way more acceptable than throwing a right hook in the pit area two hours after implying he would in the first place, apparently.
And really, from this standpoint, NASCAR is just as culpable as Stenhouse in that regard because we all knew what the 2023 Daytona 500 winner was potentially implying he would do in telling the media ‘watch after the race’ to find out what he would do about it and that ‘nothing, nothing,’ would be a good enough explanation from the two-time Cup Series champion.
While Stenhouse had 198 laps to reconsider what he wanted to do, so too did NASCAR, after hearing what was said on both television and the post infield care scrum to reach out and discourage it.
They were busy, but they didn’t.
A lot is always made out of NASCAR penalizing drivers for fighting, or even using their cars as weapons, and turning right around and using the footage as promotional material throughout the weeks and months that follows.
That’s actually fine — the marketing department and competition departments aren’t the same.
At the same time, the suspension to Rick Stenhouse and the two JTG Daugherty Racing crew members for jumping into the fracas is totally fair. No issues there. If only there was some way, like in hockey, to let drivers just sort it out without crew members and fathers rushing in.
The two suspended crew members laid their hands on Busch and a NASCAR security official respectively and the punishment certainly fits that crime.
But what does not make an ounce of sense is the decision to penalize Stenhouse the same amount as if his crew chief had modified a single source supplied part on their NextGen car, while simultaneously reaping the marketing benefits of what happened.
Insane.
The All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro was not a particularly compelling race. How many fans committed to watching through the end purely on the promise that Stenhouse said that he planned to handle it with Busch afterwards?
NASCAR needs to send Stenhouse a thank you card alongside CNN, FOX and ESPN while they’re at it.
And again, the decision to not issue a penalty of some kind to Busch would have been fine if it wasn’t for the heavy-handed nature of the fine it handed out to Stenhouse.
It’s so incredibly intellectually dishonest to imply that Busch had no intent to wreck Stenhouse, only nudge him, even if you think that Stenhouse simply ran out of talent in not holding onto the race car – which is also disingenuous given everything we know about the sensitivity of the NextGen steering rack.
But that in a vacuum would be fine if NASCAR just let the drivers police themselves in the garage, using their fists instead of their high moderately horsepowered race cars.
But holistically, this is just NASCAR missing the mark on part of its own culture and personality.
“And there’s a fight between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison! The tempers, overflowing. They are angry. They know they have lost.”
Nothing catapulted NASCAR into the national spotlight quite like the Allisons and Yarborough fighting in the Turn 3 infield dirt right in front of the whole snowed out country to see.
It was a reminder of just how much they cared about what happened on the track that day, in the same way that both Busch and Stenhouse in their respective ways, reminded us how much this matters. It reminded you why you’re a Rowdy Busch fan, why you appreciate the scrappiness of underdog Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
That’s not actions detrimental.
That’s actions beneficial.
The only fines to Stenhouse Jr. should have been that he waited at the hauler instead of walking on pit road, adjacent to the frontstretch, for the entire track and TV cameras too.
That’s what Lee Fields would have done.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.
