It’s somewhat ironic that NASCAR is returning to Bowman Gray Stadium at this exact moment in time.
Nicknamed The Madhouse for all of its theatrics, Cup Series drivers that get really mad at each other for anything that happens in February during The Busch Clash will have only one recourse left to them and that is to probably call them a really bad word and walk away.
Just like in the Madhouse documentary series!
… Wait what?
That’s right, NASCAR has made it very clear in both words and actions that ‘boys have at it’ and anything resembling the 1979 Daytona 500 fight that made the sport a mainstream curiosity in the first place will no longer be tolerated.
It’s just too embarrassing or something.
Just ask Taylor Gray, who certainly felt compelled to express something to Christian Eckes at Martinsville last month when he was roughed up a lap away from his first Truck Series win and one that would have sent him to the championship race too.
Instead, all Gray could do was just make threats that could never come to fruition. Why?
“What do you mean, what happens next week, because if I do anything, I’m going to get fined or I’m going to get penalized,” Gray said. “That’s the way NASCAR works. They can wreck you all day long but if you try to get them back, you get penalized so I have to race him clean.”
That’s the absurdity of the modern NASCAR that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. knows all too well.
Kyle Busch very clearly intended to do something to Stenhouse early in the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro ultimately crashing him. Stenhouse, a man of his word based on what he told the media upon being released from infield care, waited two hours for Busch after the race.
Stenhouse didn’t get the answer he wanted from Busch and popped him in the temple. Rick Stenhouse Sr. mixed it up. There was a heavy duty crew member throwing everyone off the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 hauler.
“Get off this truck,” he said before sending everyone off the figurative top rope like it was the WWE Royal Rumble.
It was excellent theater, the highlights made the rounds on SportsCenter and morning news broadcasts all over the country, but was ultimately too much to bear for the decision-makers in Daytona Beach and Downtown Charlotte.
They responded with a $75,000 penalty to Stenhouse, a number not too dissimilar for fines issued over illegally modifying spec parts of the modern Cup Series car, simply for choosing to throw a punch at Busch rather than using his car as a weapon at a later date.
Those in charge decided this past year that a key component of NASCAR identity needs to be punished to the same extent as illegally modifying a spec race car.
That’s insane, especially in advance of running a race at the Winston-Salem, North Carolina bullring that is most famous for its fist fights, vehicular theatrics and promo interviews that professional wrestlers would pop over.
Even watching that moment at Martinsville in November, 2021 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson said he respected Gray’s resolve but simultaneously wanted to see more.
“From an entertainment standpoint, I was like, ‘come on, punch him, I’ll tune in for this,’ but he must have told security that he just wanted to talk,” said Larson.
That’s exactly what happened.
“You could tell the crew guys were ready to fight when (Gray) walked up but everyone said ‘he just wanted to talk,” Larson said.
And that’s what NASCAR is now — just talking through your feelings, for better or worse.
But again, can you imagine where NASCAR would be if the Allisons and Cale Yarborough had simply talked out their feelings instead? Yarborough struck Bobby with his helmet sitting in the car. Bobby struck Yarborough with his fist. There was a pull-apart and suddenly people cared about NASCAR.
They wanted to know what could possess these three men to care so much about something that it devolved into that.
Historically, NASCAR has been a self-policing sport, allowing the drivers to police themselves within reason as long as it didn’t escalate to something truly unacceptable.
What does the always opinionated Denny Hamlin think?
“I’m probably the worst person you can ask for that because I retaliated and got penalized,” Hamlin said of his decision to stuff Ross Chastain in the wall in 2023 at Phoenix. “It is a self-policing sport until it is not. It is very difficult to know when is the right time because you would think you could just do it on the race track and those words self-policing have been used for decades and decades and still used today …
“NASCAR never wants to get in the middle of officiating contact, although they do at times, but then you open yourself up to what is too blatant and that is a very murky line.”
It is a very murky line, says three-time and reigning champion, who doesn’t want NASCAR getting involved with the self-policing garage.
“For one, if we’re not allowed to do anything (when we feel aggrieved) then NASCAR has to step in because if they don’t allow you to retaliate … and I’m not saying I agree with retaliation because it becomes very dangerous with a race car, but then NASCAR has to step in and makes calls and that’s not good either,” Logano said.
They made such a call on Austin Dillon for what he did to Logano and Hamlin at Richmond, for example. Could you have blamed anyone for going full Yarborough and Allisons that night?
Instead, all Logano could do to send a message was to do a burnout on pit road in front of the No. 3 pit stall, which also was more dangerous than simply being allowed to deck Dillon in Victory Lane or the garage.
But you know, $75,000.
“I don’t generally want NASCAR to be in the business of policing us but I also don’t want us retaliating with race cars either,” Logano said. “But I will say there’s ways to make someone’s life a living hell without wrecking them and that’s generally the direction I go; not all the time, obviously, but that’s what I try to do.
“It’s a tough spot to be in when you look at other forms of motorsports, because they don’t allow the contact that we do, which opens the door for all of this.”
Logano remembers ‘boys have it’ too.
“This is a conversation we had years ago with ‘boys Have it, remember when Robin Pemberton opened up the season and was like
‘I don’t care, do whatever the hell you want’ and I don’t know if that was right but we have cars that are more durable than ever now and that’s probably the biggest piece of this. We used to have cars that were relatively fragile but now they’re stiffer, which means there’s more contact and more hurt feelings.”
And now they’re taking these cars to Bowman Gray Stadium, the hurt feelings capital of motorsports, where they’re all going to be asked to have a conversation should they get mad.
Just like Cale, Donnie and Bobby did.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.