Dale Earnhardt Jr. rips Elton Sawyer explanation of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fine: 'That means nothing to me'

In his years in and around the sport of NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has seen his fair share of fights, which is why he is confused. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wasn’t just penalized, he was given the largest fine ever for a postrace fight in the history of the sport.

Ever since the penalties to Stenhouse, two of his crew members, and his dad, fans and others have been debating the legitimacy of the decision. Many believe that NASCAR took too hard of a stance against Stenhouse and his crew.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. talked about the incident on his podcast this week. The Dale Jr. Download went into why Earnhardt felt Stenhouse’s penalty was an “overreaction.”

When Andrew Kurland read off Elton Sawyer’s reasoning, this is what Dale had to say.

“Whatever that means. That means nothing to me.”

Then the NASCAR Hall of Famer went into why he feels this was an overreaction.

“I feel like, how we got to this big $75,000 penalty for Stenhouse is because that happened on such a large stage, that happened in front of so many cameras, cell phones, all of the media was involved, it was people spilling about in this massive brawl, and NASCAR was part of the promotion of that big moment, right?” Earnhardt explained.

NASCAR may have seen it as a bad look at first. Or they may have felt the sport didn’t need to promote fighting. So, they made a decision to make an example of Stenhouse.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Fight was ‘glamorized’

For Dale Earnhardt Jr., it comes down to the fight being hyped up online. Fans loved it to the point that it overshadowed the race on the track. No one gave a damn that Joey Logano had won the race.

“I think, really if you strip away all of it being glamorized, if you strip all of that away, a $25,000 for Ricky makes sense,” Dale Jr. said.

It was more about sending a message than it was actually penalizing Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for the fight.

“[NASCAR] had to say, I get kind of where they’re coming from, ‘The attention that’s getting, we’re not going to say it out in the public but it’s good. But we do need to make sure we send a message that this can’t be the norm,'” Earnhardt continued. “And I agree with that. I don’t think we need fighting every week and drivers just going nuts on each other over nothing.

“So, yeah, penalize him, I think he should have been penalized, I just thought it was a little overreacting and overblown because of how sensationalized and overblown it had gotten. Otherwise, I don’t know how to make sense of the amount of money he got fined, but hey. I’m sure there’s some examples where it falls in line with penalties in the past. I’m not sure. But that’s kind of my take on it.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is most likely right. NASCAR reacted to the situation. Possibly an overreaction. Given the $25,000 fine Matt Crafton received for a similar offense last season in the Truck Series, $75,000 for a Cup driver isn’t too far off.