Elliott Sadler calls out NASCAR hypocrisy in fallout of record penalties for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Busch fight

NASCAR handed out penalties for the brawl following this past Sunday’s All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. receiving a $75,000 fine for throwing the first right hand at Kyle Busch.

Some, including Elliott Sadler, feel that NASCAR went too far in its penalty for Stenhouse. Sadler described the fine as “dead wrong” if NASCAR promotes the fight video to sell tickets to future events.

“This is dead wrong if you plan on using the wreck of fight for promotions moving forward. You can’t fine a guy then show it to sell tickets at NASCAR events .. double standard…. Ricky saved the All Star race,” Sadler wrote on X.

The $75,000 fine is the biggest fine NASCAR has ever issued specifically for a fight. Tony Stewart was the previous record holder, having been fined $50,000 for hitting Brian Vickers at Sonoma Raceway in 2004. In addition to Stenhouse being fined $75,000, his dad, Ricky Sr., was suspended indefinitely. JTG Daugherty Racing mechanic Clint Myrick received an eight-race suspension and tuner Keith Matthews was levied a four-race suspension. Busch was not issued any fine or penalty from NASCAR.

Fines are certainly more substantial now than they were in the past. Take the 1979 Daytona 500 for example, when Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison and Donnie Allison got into a fight at the site of their final lap wreck on the backstretch. All three were fined $6,000 for fighting and recouped most of it back over the next five races for good behavior, per Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to severity of penalties stemming from Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fight

Like Sadler, Earnhardt seemed to be taken back by the penalties handed out by NASCAR.

“Wow, I’m surprised by the severity of all these penalties,” Earnhardt wrote on X Wednesday.

During an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NASCAR vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said that “better decisions could have been made” by Stenhouse throughout the night.

“When you wait 198 laps and you make those decisions that were made, again, we’re going to react to that. There could have been different decisions made,” Sawyer said Wednesday. “Once we start to get to the point where it gets physical — we want the two drivers to be able to have their time to express their differences. But again, once it escalates where there’s been a physical altercation there, we’re going to react.

“Granted there was no tunnel. Granted there was no crossover bridge. But better decisions could have been made through that period of time between the incident that happened on the racetrack and the incident that happened in the garage.”