Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s bid to win a million-dollar bonus for his JTG Daugherty Racing team was over in two laps Sunday night at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway.
On the opening lap of the NASCAR All-Star Race, Stenhouse made a bold move with his No. 47 ICYHOT Chevrolet Camaro, which ultimately drifted Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet high on the race track and made contact with the wall.
The tension escalated as Busch, feeling the impact of Stenhouse’s aggressive move, retaliated on the next lap. He chased down Stenhouse, turning the No. 47 Chevrolet Camaro on the backstretch, with last year’s Daytona 500 making hard contact with the wall.
The confrontation on the track was a testament to the fierce competition and high emotions of a non-exhibition race with a lot of money on the line.
Stenhouse gingerly drove his batted automobile down pit road, where he parked it in Busch’s pit stall. He climbed from his race car and climbed up the ladder of Richard Childress Racing’s team pit box, voicing his displeasure with the incident and vowing to Busch’s crew chief Randall Burnett that he planned to talk to Busch following the conclusion of the 200-lap race.
“Maybe Richard (Childress, Busch’s team owner) will hold my watch after the race,” said Stenhouse, throwing shade at a post-race incident between Busch and Childress following a Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway in 2011.
With no tunnel at the historic short track, Stenhouse is stuck in the infield, having to watch the remainder of the race on the sidelines.
After being evaluated and released from the infield care center, Stenhouse explained his version of what transpired under the lights.
“We barely touched. I don’t know – I mean, I haven’t seen a replay, but the gap was wide open, and I drove through there,” Stenhouse explained. “You could have put one and a half cars through it in the center and then the 34 was coming up off the bottom. So, it was just hard racing, I thought.”
Stenhouse said that with track position so important, it was important to get as many spots as possible early in the race, knowing that passing would likely be difficult the longer the race unraveled.
The three-time Cup Series winner also insinuated that Busch’s frustrating Cup season led to him losing his temper.
“It’s the All-Star Race. Short track. You got to get as much as you can early – once this thing stretches out, you won’t pass. So, you got to get all the cars you can early and felt like I did a really good job, and he did a poor job on the start, and then he was mad about it. So, I think that’s the way his season’s gone.”
Stenhouse added, “He (Busch) left the door wide open. I went through the middle, and I almost had him cleared. The No. 34 (Michael McDowell) kind of ran up the track, and we all just kind of touched there, nothing major. And then Kyle (Busch) tried to wreck me in (turns) three and four and finally did wreck me there in one and two.
“Our No. 47 Kroger Health | Icy Hot Chevy was really fast. I felt really good. We were good in practice. We had already passed two or three cars there, so bummed we couldn’t see it through to the end.”
After the race, Stenhouse confronted Busch at his Richard Childress Racing hauler in the garage.
The two drivers exchanged heated words, which escalated when Stenhouse threw a punch at Busch, igniting a brawl between the two teams. Ricky Stenhouse Sr. even had his own in-person encounter with Busch, exchanging words.
After the brawl subsided, Busch could be seen continuing to shout words at Stenhouse with Stenhouse eventually being escorted away from Busch’s hauler.
Busch declined an interview post-race with television but briefly spoke to reporters walking back to his race hauler.
“It’s the first lap of the race, we don’t even water temp in the car yet and we’re wrecking each other off (Turn) 2. Tired of getting run over by everybody. But that’s what everybody does. Everybody runs over everybody to pass everybody.”
Stenhouse was more than ready to talk, again.
“You know, I feel like Kyle and I have always raced each other really hard back to the Nationwide Series when we were competing for wins week in and week out and never had any issues. I wrecked him one time at Daytona, and he’s been kind of bad-mouthing me ever since then,” explained Stenhouse.
“I feel like we get along with each other okay outside the racetrack. I talk to him quite a bit. I’m not sure why he was so mad that — I shoved it three wide, but he hit the fence and kind of came off the wall and ran into me.”
Stenhouse said that Busch retaliated because Busch felt like the No. 47 Chevrolet driver wrecked him.
“When I was talking to him, He kept saying that I wrecked him. So yeah, just definitely built-up frustration with how he runs his mouth all the time about myself. But I know he’s frustrated because he doesn’t run near as good as he used to, and I understand that.
“We’re a single-car team over here. We’re working really hard to go out and get better each and every weekend, and we had a really good game plan coming in. Our car was really strong Friday in practice. I was looking forward to running to the front. I think we had passed a couple cars there and I was excited for the rest of the night, and he ruined it.”
Having to wait for the crossover gates to open post-race, allowed Stenhouse to stew over the accident and seemed to further aggravate his annoyance.
“So yeah, being stuck in here definitely doesn’t help the frustration,” he admitted. “You know, if there was a tunnel, I would have probably been home watching the end of that, but here we are.
“I don’t have anything else for him. If we want to do a charity match, I would do that, raise some money for maybe the NASCAR Foundation or something. That would be fun. Really other than that, I don’t have a whole lot for him.”
Follow Chris Knight on X (Twitter) @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
