In what turned out to be a moderately tame first 100 laps of the 200-lap foremost occasion, the race truly acquired off to an eventful begin as Kyle Busch tagged the skin wall on the opening lap as the sphere went three-wide.
Busch, who thought he had been hit by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., then knocked Stenhouse into the wall on lap 2 in retaliation. The harm was intensive and introduced an early finish to Stenhouse’s race.
A pissed off Stenhouse parked his wrecked automobile in Busch’s crew’s pit stall earlier than he walked to the infield care middle.
Since North Wilkesboro doesn’t have an infield entry tunnel, Stenhouse was compelled to attend out the rest of the race and he vowed to confront Busch after the race.
He saved his phrase, strolling as much as Busch as Busch returned to his crew’s hauler after the race. The 2 engaged in a short heated argument earlier than Stenhouse struck Busch along with his proper hand and a brawl erupted, which additionally collected close by crew members and Stenhouse’s father earlier than it was damaged up.
NASCAR mentioned it could look into the post-race fracas and any penalties can be introduced subsequent week.
“I felt Kyle and I by no means had any points and I wrecked him one time at Daytona and he form of unhealthy mouthed me ever since then,” Stenhouse mentioned after the incident. “I felt like we get alongside fairly nicely exterior the race monitor. I speak to him fairly a bit.
“I’m undecided why he was so mad – yeah, I shoved it three-wide, however he hit the fence, form of got here off the fence and bumped into me. Once I was speaking to him, he saved saying that I wrecked him. It was undoubtedly built-up frustration with how he runs his mouth on a regular basis about myself.
“I do know he’s [Busch] pissed off as a result of he doesn’t run close to pretty much as good as he used to. I perceive that. We’re a single automobile crew that’s working actually laborious to get higher every weekend. Our automobile was actually robust in follow, and I used to be wanting ahead to operating to the entrance.
“I used to be enthusiastic about the remainder of the night time, and he ruined it.”
Stenhouse mentioned being compelled to stay within the infield the remainder of the race didn’t assist his frustration stage.
“If there was a tunnel, I might most likely be at dwelling watching the tip of that however right here we’re,” Stenhouse mentioned. “I don’t have the rest for him. If he desires to do a charity match we may do this, increase some cash.”
Busch, who completed tenth out of the 20 automobiles, left the monitor with out remark. Stenhouse ended up twentieth.
Watch: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: ‘Simply built-up frustration’ led to Busch altercation
