“Watch after the race.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. delivered on a promise over how he would handle a conflict with Kyle Busch after he was intentionally crashed on the second lap of the NASCAR All Star Race on Sunday at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
As Joey Logano celebrated his million-dollar victory, Busch marched back to the infield garage area with a mass of humanity in tow and Stenhouse was waiting at the gate of the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 to begin hashing out what happened.
Two laps into the race, Busch got loose and slapped the wall. Simultaneously, Stenhouse took Busch and Hamlin three-wide and the two-time Cup Series champion blamed the 2023 Daytona 500 winning driver for his misfortunes.
Busch drove into the next corner and never lifted until Stenhouse went around and hard into the wall. Stenhouse was adamant that he didn’t deserve that.
“I went through the middle and almost had him clear. [Michael McDowell] kind of ran up the track and we all just kind of touched there – nothing major. And then Kyle tried to wreck me in [Turns 3 and 4], and then finally did wreck me there in [Turns 1 and 2].”
When asked by Sportsnaut if there was anything Busch could say to make it right, Stenhouse said ‘nothing’ and when asked what he planned to do, he said ‘watch after the race.’
First came the conversation:
RSJ: “What was that?”
KB: “You hit me!”
RSJ: “Where?”
KB: “Coming off 2. You wrecked my ass off 2.”
RSJ: “You hit the fence yourself. I didn’t touch you.”
KB: “Really?!”
RSJ: “Go back and watch the replay. I did not touch you. Not even once.”
KB: “We all hit each other.”
RSJ: “You hit the fence and then you hit me.”
KB: “I don’t believe it but if that’s what happened …”
RSJ: “Go back and watch.”
Stenhouse delivered that last line while also delivering a right hook and then it became a full blown fight.
Once the punch connected, Stenhouse then grabbed Busch and both fell towards the ground. NASCAR security pulled Stenhouse away but then Rick Stenhouse Sr. lunged towards Busch instead. The elder Stenhouse started to strangle Busch but also go rocked with errant punches for the effort.
The younger Stenhouse shouted ‘dad’, and then ‘get my dad.’ Busch made it to the lift gate of the No. 8 hauler and continued to trade barbs with Stenhouse.
KB: “You’re fucking stupid.”
RSJ: “Why am I stupid?”
KB: “You put me three-wide …”
RSJ: “I didn’t touch you. Who cares?”
KB: “You know there’s no room off 2.”
RSJ: “I gave you plenty of room. There’s plenty of room bud. I’ll wreck you at Charlotte.”
KB: “Bring it. I don’t give a fuck. “I suck just as bad as you. Let’s go.”
Busch declined an interview after the fight but articulated some thoughts while walking to the garage.
“It’s the first lap of the race and we don’t even have water temperatures up yet and we’re wrecking each other off 2,” Busch said. “I’m tired of getting run over everybody.”
Stenhouse was interviewed on FOX Sports after the fracas.
“I feel like Kyle and I have always raced each other really hard back to the [Xfinity] Series when we were competing for wins week-in and week-out,” Stenhouse said. “We never had any issues, and then I wrecked one time at Daytona, and he’s kind of bad-mouthed me ever since then, so I feel like we get along with each other okay outside the racetrack. I talk to him quite a bit.
“I’m not sure why he was so mad that I shoved it three-wide, but he hit the fence and came off the wall and ran into me… When I was talking to him, he kept saying that I wrecked him, so yeah, it’s definitely built-up frustration with how he runs his mouth all the time about myself. But I know he’s frustrated because he doesn’t run near as good as he used to and I understand that. We’re a single-car team over here; we’re working really hard to go out and get better each and every weekend and we had a really good game plan coming [into today]. Our car was really strong Friday in practice; I was looking forward to running to the front. I think we’d passed a couple of cars there, and I was excited for the rest of the night, and he ruined it.
“Being stuck in here definitely doesn’t help the frustration. If there was a tunnel, I’d [have] probably been home watching the end of that. But here we are.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.