Dashing automobiles escalated into swinging punches at Sunday night time’s NASCAR All-Star Race in North Carolina, the place drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch received right into a battle that later concerned their crews.
Tempers apparently flared after Busch bumped Stenhouse’s No. 47 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, inflicting the automobile to slam into a fringe wall, in response to NASCAR. The crash knocked Stenhouse out of the race after simply two laps (out of 200) at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Stenhouse then parked in Busch’s pit field and climbed over the wall and as much as the crew to apparently get a phrase in. As North Wilkesboro has no exit tunnel, he needed to anticipate the race to complete for his probability to confront Busch.
Throughout post-competition fireworks, the 2 drivers have been being recorded talking within the storage when Stenhouse threw a proper hook at Busch’s face.
Video of the confrontation posted by NASCAR confirmed Stenhouse was visibly agitated as he was talking with Busch.
Busch stated, “All of us hit one another,” to which Stenhouse replied, “You hit the fence and then you definitely hit me.” Busch responded, “I don’t consider you.”
“Return and watch it,” Stenhouse stated earlier than swinging.
A second later, different folks surrounding the 2 stars jumped in to intervene and pull them aside, touchdown each on the bottom.
Crew members received concerned within the scuffle, too, throwing punches at each other. In a video NASCAR shared on X, Busch swings at a person who separated him from Stenhouse.
In a post-fight interview with Fox Sports activities, Stenhouse stated: “You understand, I really feel like Kyle and I’ve all the time raced one another actually laborious. … Then, I wrecked him as soon as at Daytona, and he’s form of been bad-mouthing me ever since then.
“I really feel like we get together with one another OK exterior the racetrack. I discuss to him fairly a bit. I’m undecided why he was so mad that I shoved it three extensive. However he hit the fence and form of got here off the wall and bumped into me. I don’t know — after I was speaking to him, he saved saying that I wrecked him,” he stated. “Positively built-up frustration with how he runs his mouth on a regular basis about myself.
“However I do know he’s annoyed, as a result of he doesn’t run close to nearly as good as he used to, and I perceive that,” Stenhouse added.
He stated being caught on the racetrack “undoubtedly doesn’t assist the frustration.”
“If there was a tunnel, I’d have most likely been residence watching the top of that. However right here we’re,” Stenhouse stated.
There have been no critical accidents within the confrontation, and if there are any penalties, they’ll be assessed by Wednesday in keeping with regular procedures and timelines, NASCAR stated.
Busch completed tenth in his No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, and Stenhouse got here in final.
Joey Logano in his No. 22 Ford Mustang Darkish Horse ended up profitable the race and its $1 million prize.
Neither driver nor NASCAR instantly responded to requests for remark.