NASCAR has fined Ricky Stenhouse Jr. following the driver’s altercation with Kyle Busch at the NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday, May 19.
Ricky Stenhouse, 36, was fined $75,000 for punching Busch, while his father, Richard Stenhouse, was indefinitely suspended for violations of the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct. In addition, two crew members from their No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing team were suspended, NASCAR announced Wednesday, May 22.
“I think it’s fair to say that when you have crew members and family members that put their hands on our drivers, we’re going to react,” NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“There’s not a lot of detail I’m going to get into due to the fact that these are appealable penalties, and I want to make sure that we’re fair to that process.”
He added, “With that being said, and we’ve been consistent about this, when crew members and family members get involved, we are going to react. That’s exactly what we did.”
Additionally, NASCAR announced that team mechanic Clint Myrick was suspended for the next eight Cup Series races (through events at Pocono Raceway on July 14) for his role, and tuner Keith Matthews was suspended for the next four Cup Series events (through Iowa Speedway on June 16).
Stenhouse and Busch, 39, first got into it during the actual race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina when Stenhouse was driving in the middle of three cars and Busch hit the wall. Busch then reportedly appeared to retaliate and hit his opponent’s rear bumper, which sent Stenhouse into the wall as well.
Stenhouse was sidelined after only completing two of the 200 laps. After parking his car in Busch’s pit stall, he shared with reporters that he told his competition’s crew chief Randall Burnett that he’d “see Kyle afterwards.”
“When you wait 198 laps and you make those decisions that were made, again, we’re going to react to that,” Sawyer said. ”Once we get to the point where it gets physical, we want the two drivers to be able to have time to express their differences. Once it escalates to a physical altercation, we are going to react.”
Stenhouse waited around for Busch after the race and later disagreed with him over whether or not his car touched Busch’s car initially.
“I don’t believe you,” Busch said, before Stenhouse replied, “Go back and watch it,” and then threw a punch, which was caught on the broadcast and shared by NASCAR on social media.
Both men engaged in a tussle which involved some tackling and pushing to the ground before members of their crew began to engage as well, per video of the scene. At the end of it, Busch and Stenhouse were separated and shared some final words while being held back.
“I don’t give a f—,” Busch, who finished the race in 10th place, said. “I sucked just as bad as you.”