NASCAR sets fight fine record following Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Busch penalties, surpassing Tony Stewart

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.

Stenhouse certainly paid a big price for getting into it with Busch. He had the time equivalent to 198 laps to determine how he would react to seeing Busch after the two-time Cup Series champion put him in the wall just two laps into the 200-lap exhibition. Stuck in the infield with nowhere to go since North Wilkesboro doesn’t have any exit tunnels, Stenhouse decided he’d wait outside Busch’s 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.”

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

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.

During an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, 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 Wednesday. “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.”