Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was pretty heated after getting put into the wall by Kyle Busch just two laps into Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Stenhouse, stuck in the infield with nowhere to go since North Wilkesboro doesn’t have any exit tunnels, vowed he would see Busch after the 200-lap exhibition came to an end. Stenhouse stayed true to his word, waiting for Busch outside his hauler. Once Busch arrived with a herd of media around him, it was on. The two exchanged words before Stenhouse threw a right hand at Busch, setting off a massive brawl between the two and their respective pit crews.
Stenhouse set the scene before the brawl during an appearance on Corey LaJoie’s “Stacking Pennies” podcast Monday. Stenhouse said he was at a six on the 10 scale before confronting Busch, at which he then got more angry hearing Busch fail to take accountability for wrecking him. At that point and after threatening to fight him earlier in the night, Stenhouse went for it.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sets the scene ahead of fight with Kyle Busch
“I was like, ‘I’m not gonna go to pit road,’ our buses are parked next to each other, maybe I’ll see him back there and I’m like, ‘I’ll just see where he goes.’ And I kinda hope the media had forgot about it a little bit,” Stenhouse said. “… If there’s some sort of, ‘Hey, I crossed the line’ — I didn’t think that was gonna come from him [Busch], like not a chance but I was like maybe I’ll be calm if he says, ‘Hey, I messed up. Crossed the line. Crashed you on purpose for no reason.’ Probably would have handled it [differently].
“… I’m still pretty fired up [while waiting next to Busch’s hauler], I’d say like a six. But then it got back to an eight, eight and a half when we’re talking, and he acted like I wrecked him. I was like, ‘Man, I don’t see that at all.’ … It seemed like everybody just showed up out of nowhere because there was nobody there. But the sucky part I think is you always feel bad after the fact. Like when you wake up the next day, you’re like, ‘I probably shouldn’t have done that.’ But then again… he probably shouldn’t have wrecked me on purpose just because I passed him. So, I don’t know.”
As the situation was being diffused and Stenhouse dragged away from the scene, he yelled, “I’ll wreck you at Charlotte,” to Busch. Busch responded to the comment, “Bring it. I don’t give a f***. I suck just as bad as you. Let’s go.”
Whether or not Stenhouse sees through on that promise remains to be seen. All eyeballs, however, will certainly be glued to this Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway to see if there’s another chapter to this story.
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