Richard Childress: If Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wrecks Kyle Busch at Charlotte, ‘he’ll carry a rough ass-beating’

The fight came about after Stenhouse ended up in the wall on the second lap of the All-Star Race, which carried a $1 million prize. He argued Busch was the one who wrecked him and confronted him after the checkered flag came down.

That meant Stenhouse had to wait 198 laps to confront Busch, and he sent a message to his pit crew about a potential post-race rendezvous. In fact, the possibility apparently became known during the race.

“I didn’t realize that when I went back and looked — we have a group text and it’s me and Austin, it’s got JP and Jared, my buddy Greg and it’s got Ricky [Stenhouse] and Kyle Larson on it. He was letting us know while the race was going on [that] he’s gonna go after him [Busch]. So, of course I’m in the race so I don’t see it,” Denny Hamlin said. “But there’s others that are not in the race. So, he’s stuck in the infield on his phone and he’s fuming.”

Once Joey Logano won and the drivers headed back to pit road, the fight ensued, and Ricky Stenhouse Sr. apparently found himself in the middle of it, too. However, Stenhouse Jr. said he thought things were just getting started when it broke up.

“That was too quick,” Stenhouse said. “… Give the other guy more of an opportunity as well to come back. And then give the other guy another shot, right. Let it go to the ground. I think so. As long as other crew guys stay out of it, just let the drivers handle it.”