If you’re an auto racing fan, the 2024 NASCAR All-Star Race was a bit of a bore. Joey Logano dominated in his Team Penske Ford, winning the million-dollar prize after leading for 199 of the 200 laps.
If you’re the kind who watches stock car racing for the crashes, however, you got your money’s worth: After Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were involved in an incident on the second lap, the two got into a viral fight after the race.
Logano, a two-time series champion, sat on the pole at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and cemented the win in the 20-car field by staying out during a planned caution with 50 laps left for lack of another set of soft-compound tires.
He ended up winning by just over half a second in the non-points-paying race, open to winners in the 2023 and 2024 season as well as fan favorites and several drivers who qualified during the 100-lap All-Star Open earlier in the day.
“We came here and tested and ran over 800 laps at the tire test,” Logano said after the race, according to USA Today. “I wish this one counted for points, but a million bucks will work as well.”
Busch and Stenhouse Jr. might end up losing money after it’s all over, however, thanks to potential fines due to what happened behind the wall after the race was finished.
The inciting incident took place just after the start as Busch’s No. 8 Lenovo ran wide into turn one. Stenhouse Jr. in the No. 47 Kroger’s Chevrolet ended up going three-wide, splitting Busch’s car and the No. 34 of Michael McDowell.
While Busch’s car hit the wall, closer examination of the clip shows that Stenhouse Jr. didn’t actually touch Busch’s car.
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Whether or not he forced Busch, himself a two-time Cup Series champion, into the wall by taking an ill-advised racing line is another question entirely, although Busch was extremely wide by the standards of North Wilkesboro and the whole thing could be chalked up to a racing incident. You make the call.
It’s not too difficult to make the call as to what happened next, however: As lap two started, Busch rammed into the back of Stenhouse Jr.’s car quite deliberately, putting him into the wall and out of the running:
Caution on Lap 2. 👀 pic.twitter.com/6hix2jAvcj
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 20, 2024
Busch, long considered one of the sport’s most polarizing figures, isn’t known for being a man who lets grudges go that easily. It’s not as if Stenhouse Jr. gave him much of a choice, either, parking his car in Busch’s pit box and making it clear he wanted to fight Busch after the race — insinuating Busch’s car owner, Richard Childress, should “hold my watch.”
“Maybe Richard will hold my watch after the race.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. parked his car in Kyle Busch’s pit box.
📸: @NASCAR pic.twitter.com/7Fo4QqQJDB
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) May 20, 2024
So, Busch sauntered up to Stenhouse Jr. behind the pit wall and the two engaged in a thoughtful, elevated, “Firing Line“-level repartee about what happened out on the track. Or, rather, the two exchanged mostly incoherent babble obscured by engine noise and fireworks, Stenhouse Jr. told him to “go back and watch it,” and then proceeded to swing for Busch’s face.
WARNING: The following video contains graphic footage that some viewers will find offensive.
Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fight after the All-Star Race. pic.twitter.com/IJMttBw90W
— Jordan Bianchi (@Jordan_Bianchi) May 20, 2024
To make things worse, the men’s pit crews got involved. And it all came as winner Logano was being interviewed on the post-race network feed:
To say this was the viral moment of the weekend was a bit of an understatement, judging by social media:
🚨🇺🇸BREAKING: NASCAR FIGHT AFTER ALL-STAR RACE
Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came to blows after the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Tensions boiled over following a heated race, resulting in the two drivers throwing punches on the pit road.
Sources:… pic.twitter.com/6rXNMEVPIn
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 20, 2024
NASCAR Fight To The Top cutscenes getting more realistic. pic.twitter.com/WB1TtnZVKE
— Darian Gilliam (@BlackFlagMatter) May 20, 2024
NASCAR FIGHT! pic.twitter.com/V0NDqNd5Qc
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) May 20, 2024
Now, again to be fair, NASCAR has a long and storied tradition of post-accident donnybrooks. In fact, the race that arguably brought the sport from being a regional Southern spectacle to a national audience — the 1979 Daytona 500, the first 500-miler to be aired in its entirety live — ended in a legendary fight after Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison wrecked on the last lap while fighting for the lead.
However, here’s the thing: People also remember that one of the all-time greats, Richard Petty, won that race. On social media after Sunday’s race, I didn’t really seem to find anyone talking about Logano’s dominating performance. Rather, the attention seemed to be much in the vein of radio host and pundit Clay Travis’ two-word reaction: “NASCAR FIGHT!”
NASCAR is currently in the process of building back the kind of audience it enjoyed in the ’90s and ’00s, something it’s lost due to talent aging out of the sport, newer drivers who seem more corporate and less personable than the Darrell Waltrips and Dale Earnhardts they replaced, confusing and gimmicky rule changes, and the emergence of other summer sports — including another popular motor-racing series, Formula One — in the United States.
Furthermore, extracurricular activities like this, particularly given our greater awareness of the damage wrought by head trauma, isn’t exactly viewed in the same light by sports fans in 2024.
What used to be charming, in other words, is now a bit embarrassing. If you missed the All-Star Race, tune into the social media viral-clip madness and you’d get the impression people tuned in for a fight and a stock car event broke out. That’s something NASCAR can ill afford on one of the biggest dates on the 2024 calendar.
