Ricky Stenhouse Jr. parks his car in Kyle Busch’s pit box after early contact in the All-Star Race. (Photo: Phil Cavali | The Podium Finish)
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Following a rainy weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway, the NASCAR Cup Series ran their second consecutive All-Star Race at the historic 0.625-mile speedway following its restoration.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. did not take home the $1 million payday, ending the 200-lap race dead last in 20th place. After beginning the race in 16th place, Stenhouse was put in the wall in Turn 1 by Kyle Busch on Lap 2 after what he thought was contact from the JTG Daugherty Racing driver in the backstretch on Lap 1.
It was clear that Stenhouse would not be able to continue in the race after contact with the wall. Stenhouse then came down pit road and parked his car in Kyle Busch’s pit box and climbed over the wall and attempted to have a conversation with Busch’s crew chief Randall Burnett and Executive Vice President of Richard Childress Racing Andy Petree.
Stenhouse quickly left and the race continued, the restart and pit stops leaving Busch battling with Denny Hamlin for 10th place, up from his 14th place starting position. With 20 laps complete in the race, Busch had fallen back to 14th once again. Busch was up to 13th place after a restart.
With 82 laps remaining in the race, the third caution of the night came out for Ty Gibbs spinning after contact from Bush.
Kyle Busch during practice before the race for $1 million at North Wilkesboro Speedway. (Photo: Phil Cavali | The Podium Finish)
After restarting 12th, Busch worked his way back inside the top 10 by the time there was 38 laps until the checkered flag. Busch maintained 10th place throughout the closing laps and took home a respectable top-10 finish. The two-time Cup series champion was, however, not happy with a tenth place finish.
Tempers flared following the race between both Busch and Stenhouse when Stenhouse approached Busch’s hauler. What started as a heated conversation turned into a physical altercation.
Stenhouse swung at Busch before the two were separated with members of their crew still having heated conversations. Stenhouse later spoke about the race as a whole and what led to the altercation.
“We had a really good start. He left the door wide open,” Stenhouse said. “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) 3 and 4, and finally did wreck me there in one and two.
“Our No. 47 Kroger Healthy / 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.”
