Elton Sawyer addresses penalties for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Busch fight at NASCAR All-Star Race

NASCAR has officially handed down the penalties stemming from the Ricky Stenhouse Jr.-Kyle Busch fight following this past Sunday’s All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Stenhouse was fined $75,000 while 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.

During a Wednesday morning appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio moments after the sanctioning body announced the penalties, NASCAR vice president of competition Elton Sawyer gave his first public comments.

“When crew members get involved and family members get involved, we are going to react. And that’s exactly what we did,” Sawyer said. “We looked at all the audio and video from the incident on Sunday night. At this point, that’s all I’m gonna comment on the penalties. … 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.

“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.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Busch turn attention to Coca-Cola 600 after fight at North Wilkesboro

The wheels were set in motion after Busch put Stenhouse into the wall just two laps into the 200-lap exhibition. Stenhouse parked his No. 47 Chevrolet in Busch’s pit stall and vowed he would see him after the race. Stenhouse, stuck in the infield with nowhere to go since North Wilkesboro doesn’t have any exit tunnels, stayed true to his word. He waited for Busch outside his hauler.

Once Busch arrived with a herd of media around him, it was on. The two exchanged words before Stenhouse threw a right hand at Busch, setting off a massive brawl between the two and their respective pit crews.

As the situation was being diffused and Stenhouse dragged away from the scene, he yelled, “I’ll wreck you at Charlotte,” to Busch. Busch responded to the comment, “Bring it. I don’t give a f***. I suck just as bad as you. Let’s go.”

Stenhouse has since gone back on that statement, telling Corey LaJoie on his “Stacking Pennies” podcast Monday that he will not wreck Busch during this Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.

“I told him I might crash him at Charlotte — I’m not gonna crash him at Charlotte,” Stenhouse said. “Then that just keeps it going, right. So, as far as my end goes, I feel like I’m past it.”