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Ricky Stenhouse Jr. reflects on fight with Kyle Busch at North Wilkesboro

Brian Jones Profile Picby:Brian Jones10/10/24

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Kyle Busch Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fight
Screenshot credit: NASCAR on FOX via X.com

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the YellaWood 500 on Sunday, but his 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season will likely be remembered because of his fight with Kyle Busch after the All-Star Race. While appearing on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Stenhouse looked back on the fight after Busch wrecked him during the race at North Wilkesboro and what took him over the edge.

“I tend to get over things fairly quick no matter what happens. At North Wilkesboro, there was an All-Star race. I felt like he wrecked me on purpose on lap one and a half,” Stenhouse said. “Now I’m stuck in the infield and I can’t leave. I got mad and got over it. My wife talked me off the ledge a few times. By the time the race was over, I was like ‘You know what, I’m going to go talk to him or at least wait for him.’

“I felt like I gave him an ample amount of time to at least maybe apologize, even though we know Kyle and he’s probably not going to. I felt like that was kind of the thing that just kind of pushed it over the edge. I was just waiting on like ‘Hey man, I’m sorry, shouldn’t have done that. I definitely crossed the line,’ or something.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. shares more on fight with Kyle Busch

Stenhouse added, “It’s cool. My whole team was behind me. All of our partners were behind me. I got a lot of great fans at the racetrack from it, so not all is bad. But sitting there Lap 1 with a few of your sponsors that were also stuck in the infield, I felt bad for them as well.”

Stenhouse and Busch were battling early during the race which led to a series of bumps that landed Stenhouse’s No. 47 car in the outside retaining wall. Before heading back to his stall, Stenhouse sent a message to Busch’s No. 8 team by parking in its stall and dismounting.

After the race and altercation, Busch told his side of the story. “I mean, it’s the first lap of the race,” he said at the time, per NASCAR.com “We don’t even have water temp in the car yet, and we’re wrecking off of (Turn) 2. … I’m tired of getting run over — by everybody. But that’s what everybody does. Everybody runs over everybody to pass everybody.”