Following the fight between Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at North Wilkesboro Speedway, only one driver had fines. In fact, NASCAR felt they had to hand out multiple penalties for the fight, but they were one-sided.
Elton Sawyer, Vice President of Competition, has been answering for the governing body in the fallout of the penalties. Sawyer gave NASCAR’s side of things. Including why they didn’t hand out a penalty or fine to Kyle Busch or his crew.
Sawyer went on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio to talk about the lack of a penalty for Busch and why NASCAR wouldn’t hand one out in this instance.
“You look at the race track and the situation and it’s early, it’s the All-Star Race, it’s hard racing,” Sawyer explained. “I will defer to Ricky and Kyle whether they agree to disagree about what happened on the race track. This has been consistent over out time. If we see something, we have proven over time, it’s intentionally hooking someone in the right rear and we’ve reacted to that.
“But we really as a sanctioning body want, and we do, want to stay out of the on-track incidents unless we see something that blatantly comes back to us that we need to react to. In this case, we reviewed it, we looked at it, we listened to audio, and again, hard racing, but also totally appreciate where the two drivers stand on it. We’ll let those guys decide and agree and disagree.”
A lot of fans and people in the NASCAR world have been confused on this. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. received a $75,000 fine for the fight. While it seems strange, there is precedent, very recent precedent, for this decision.
Even though Stenhouse wasn’t able to leave the infield due to NorthWilkesboro not having a tunnel, he stewed for two hours. 198 laps went by. He parked his car in Kyle Busch’s pit stall, went into his pit box to yell at his crew chief, then did two media interviews.
One word is all you need to know: Premeditation. Stenhouse said he would fight Busch multiple times, sat around and waited, and then he did it. He even went and sought him out at the No. 8 hauler.
Kyle Busch was not the one who instigated the fight. Then he had to deal with crew members and Ricky Stenhouse Sr. It went beyond drivers policing drivers.
As for the on-track action from Busch, it was Lap 2 of a short-track race. It wasn’t a right rear hook going 150 MPH+ on a big track. Not to mention he retaliated in the heat of the moment. “Heat of the moment” is key here.
NASCAR does not want premeditated fights. They do not want crews and family members getting involved. Drivers policing drivers, that’s it. That has been clear for years at this point. Right now, Stenhouse has not appealed the fine and JTG Daugherty has not appealed the suspensions to their crew members.
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