Denny Hamlin has an interesting theory regarding the fight between Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. following the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro over the weekend.
During the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin explained that he believes Busch was about to apologize to Stenhouse Jr. for wrecking him, but the No. 8 wheelman never had the chance to, as Stenhouse Jr. wound up and threw a punch at Busch before he could ever get it out.
“Before his face-to-face with Kyle, he put himself in a box. He put himself in a box on TV, by saying he was going to do something, and Ricky is one of those stand-up humans that, when he tells you he’s going to do something, he’s probably going to do it,” Hamlin stated. “At that point, short of Kyle saying, when they first meet face-to-face, ‘Oh my god Ricky, I am so sorry. I screwed up. You are so right.’ That was the only way he was not going to get punched. It was the only way, because I thought Kyle didn’t really justify anything. He was like, right before the punch, you heard him saying, because Ricky said, ‘Go look at it. I never touched you.’ (Kyle said) ‘Well, if that happened,’ — boom. He was just about to make the turn into the relationship where he was like, ‘Okay, you’re right, I’ll apologize, I’ll look at it. If that what happened, sorry.’ He just never got the chance to say it, because Ricky saw the opportunity to throw this punch, starting to dwindle.
“(Ricky) said, ‘Well, I said it. I guess I’ve got to do it.’ So I just think that he’s a man of his word. He told us he was going to do it. That’s why all the cameras were following Kyle. They knew that Ricky was camped out at the No. 8 hauler. We had what we had.”
After talking a big game following Busch wrecking him, Hamlin understood Stenhouse Jr. had to stand on business. It would’ve taken a grand apology from Busch to keep Stenhouse Jr. at bay, and that was never going to happen.
It remains to be seen what the next development is between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch, but the duo will certainly have no love between each other over the remainder of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, that much is for sure.
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