NASCAR fined Ricky Stenhouse Jr. $75,000, indefinitely suspended his father, while suspending two other crew members of the JTG Daugherty No. 47 following the fracas after the All-Star Race on Sunday night at North Wilkesboro.
Stenhouse took Busch three-wide on the second lap of the race. There was not contact but that spot it place Busch into caused him to slap the wall. Busch felt Stenhouse forced him into the wall. As a result, Busch drove into the back of Stenhouse in the next corner and sent him into the wall.
As a result, Stenhouse waited at Busch’s hauler after the race and there was a confrontation. After heated words, Stenhouse punched Busch and the fight was on. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. lunged towards Busch and the two crews began tussling near the No. 8 hauler.
Thus, NASCAR also suspended N0. 47 team mechanic Clint Myrick for the next eight races, through the event at Pocono Raceway on July 14 and tuner Keith Matthews for the next four Cup Series events, through Iowa Speedway on June 16.
Matthews placed his hands on Busch while Myrick placed hands on both Busch and NASCAR’s security official.
“I think it’s fair to say that when you have crew members and family members that put their hands on our drivers, we’re going to react,” NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer said Wednesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “There’s not a lot of detail I’m going to get into due to the fact that these are appealable penalties, and I want to make sure that we’re fair to that process.
“With that being said, and we’ve been consistent about this, when crew members and family members get involved, we are going to react. That’s exactly what we did.”
As for Stenhouse, Sawyer said it was the decision to wait two hours and still initiate a conversation after promising ‘just watch after the race,’ that drew a punitive reaction.
“When you wait 198 laps and you make those decisions that were made, again, we’re going to react to that,” Sawyer said. ” … Once we get to the point where it gets physical, we want the two drivers to be able to have time to express their differences. Once it escalates to a physical altercation, we are going to react.
“Granted there was no tunnel, granted there was no crossover bridge (to allow Stenhouse Jr. to leave the track), better decisions could have been made throughout that period of time between the incident on the race track and the incident in the garage post-race.”
Why was there no penalties issued to Busch for the retaliatory contact on Stenhouse?
“You look at the race track and the situation, it’s early,” Sawyer said. “It’s the All Star Race. I would defer to Ricky and Kyle whether they agree to disagree over what happened on the track. We’ve been consistent over time, if we see something, intentionally hooking someone on the right rear. We really, as a sanctioning, and we do stay out of the on-track incidents unless we see something that blatantly comes back to us that we need to react to.
“We reviewed it, we listened to audio, and again, hard racing … also totally appreciate where the two guys stand on it and we’ll let the two guys agree to disagree.”
Also on the penalty report, competition officials issued two penalties after the Craftsman Truck Series’ most recent race at North Wilkesboro. Officials gave a one-race suspension to crew member Dawson Backus, rear tire changer for the No. 7 Spire Motorsports team, for violating the rule book section on crew protective clothing/equipment, specifically helmet straps. Officials also fined crew chief Jeff Stankiewicz $2,500 after the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Grant Enfinger was found with one unsecured lug nut in a post-race check.
Lastly, NASCAR officials also handed an indefinite suspension to Rowan Mason for a behavioral violation of Sections 4.1 and 10.1.A in the Rule Book (Substance Abuse Policy). Mason was last listed on NASCAR’s team roster portal as a mechanic for the No. 5 Our Motorsports team in the Xfinity Series.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.