Ricky Stenhouse Jr. addresses if he will talk to Kyle Busch before the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte

It’s been three days since the fight heard ’round the NASCAR world between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch. The dust is still settling, but the calendar is quickly moving on to Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 when the two racers could, presumably, see each other again.

Even in the time since the fight, Stenhouse – who received a $75,000 fine as a result – said he hasn’t reached out to Busch to talk. In fact, as things currently stand, he won’t.

“I have not. I don’t plan on going out of my way to reach out to him,” Stenhouse said on NASCAR Race Hub. “Where I stand, I feel like he still crashed with me on purpose, and I think that that’s way over the line.”

Things heated up between the two on the second lap when Stenhouse ended up in the wall and said Busch was the reason why. He ended up pulling out of the All-Star Race and watched the last 198 laps from pit road since he couldn’t leave. Afterward, it all boiled over, and Stenhouse said Busch “runs his mouth.”

Wednesday, he noted the amount of respect he has for Busch’s NASCAR career. But Stenhouse has a different perspective after Sunday’s events, and he said if they do see each other in Charlotte, it won’t be because he made the first move.

“For me, I got a lot of respect for Kyle and what he’s done on the race track,” Stenhouse said. “Obviously, he’s accomplished 10 times more in his career than I could ever think about, really, at this moment. We’ve had great battles throughout the years, and look forward to battling more. I lost a lot of respect in that situation, the way he handled it. But still got a lot of respect for what he can do behind the wheel.

“And knowing that we’re gonna go out there and race hard at the 600, and we’ll end up around each other at some point, I’m sure. But no, I’m not gonna go out of my way [to talk to him].”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spoke with Richard Childress

Another twist in the fallout came Tuesday when Busch’s owner, Richard Childress, threatened to give Ricky Stenhouse Jr. an “ass-beating” if he followed through on his initial promise to wreck Busch at Charlotte. Prior to Childress’ comments, Stenhouse walked back that remark during an appearance with Corey LaJoie.

After the video went viral, the two spoke, and Stenhouse mentioned the quip about wrecking Busch’s car came in the spur of the moment. But Stenhouse had a message for him – a much different one than he had Tuesday.

“I talked to Richard. Obviously, I saw his comments last night and had a pretty good laugh when I saw that,” Stenhouse said. “No, I called Richard this morning and said kind of the same thing I told Randall, no loss of respect for that organization and what Richard’s done. In the heat of the moment, I told Kyle I’d wreck him in Charlotte. Then, I went on LaJoie’s podcast and said I’m not gonna wreck him, I’m not gonna do that. Richard and I had a laugh about that.

“He basically said, ‘Hey, you can do whatever you want to with Kyle. Just don’t wreck my race car.’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir. Loud and clear.'”

The Stenhouse-Busch relationship will surely be an interesting storyline as Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 approaches.