Kyle Larson was the man of the weekend that was, due to his time in Indianapolis, where he qualified for the Indianapolis 500, and then jetting to North Wilkesboro for the All-Star Race.
However, the altercation between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch has overtaken his shine since Sunday evening, and it’s all anyone in the NASCAR world can talk about at the moment. Stenhouse Jr. landed a stiff right hand to Busch’s noggin after the No. 8 wrecked him, and chaos ensued between the drivers, and their crew members.
As the dust settled, Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press hit Larson with the most fun question he’d be asked all week, which driver would win in an actual fight, Stenhouse Jr. or Busch? The No. 5 wheelman’s answer was definitive.
“Oh, Ricky, for sure,” Larson told Fryer. “He’s a scrapper. And he doesn’t stop. He won’t stop.”
Busch may not take too kindly to Larson being so sure of his answer, but Stenhouse Jr. did look like he won Round 1, even though he threw the first punch. The battle was quickly broken up, before the question could truly be answered.
At the least, Larson believed it would take a while for Stenhouse Jr. to defeat Busch in an actual fight, as he told Fryer Stenhouse Jr. would take the win over Busch in three rounds, “He may get beat up, but he won’t quit,” Larson told Fryer.
Alas, the altercation stemmed from Stenhouse Jr. being put into the wall by Busch on Lap 2 of the 200-lap race. With $1,000,000 on the line, both drivers were on edge and looking for every edge they could gain early in the race, and the money could’ve gone a long way from Stenhouse Jr.’s single-car team.
A large contingent agreed that on the ensuing replay, it looked like Stenhouse didn’t really do anything wrong to Busch. He ran up the middle and Busch got into the wall. So, the No. 47 wheelman was certainly stewing over the situation.
“I’m not sure why he was so mad,” Stenhouse Jr. told FOX, following the altercation. “I shoved it three-wide, but I mean, he hit the fence and kind of came off the wall and ran into me. I don’t know, when I was talking to him he kept saying that I wrecked him. So, 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 as well as he used to. 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.
“You know, we had a really good game plan coming in. Our car was really strong. Friday in practice I was looking forward to running to the front. I think we’d pass a couple of cars there. 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 at home watching the end of that. So, here we are.”
Evidently, Busch’s frustrations were a long time coming. “I’m tired of being run over by everybody,” Busch told FOX. “But that’s what everybody does. Everybody runs over everybody to pass everybody.”
In the moments after, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. threatened to wreck Kyle Busch during this weekend’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. If that comes to fruition, we may get an answer on which driver would win in an actual fight.
On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.
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