Kevin Harvick weighs in on repercussions, fallout from Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Busch fight
Kevin Harvick wants to see more battles between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch following their fight after the NASCAR All-Star race. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, the NASCAR legend was asked about the repercussions and fallout from the fight moving forward.
“There’s obviously some tension between the drivers,” Harvick said. “I hope it continues to be honest with you. I hope that rivalry pushes forward because that’s the type of stuff I want. I can’t speak for everybody else, but the crew guys I do not like those guys being involved in it.”
Harvick made the comments before NASCAR handed out its punishments to Stenhouse and his team. Stenhouse, who threw the first punch, was fined $75,000, and two crew members from the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing team were issued suspensions. Stenhouse’s father, Ricky Stenhouse Sr., was suspended indefinitely for violations of the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct. Busch did not receive a fine or suspension.
“I think it’s fair to say that when you have crew members and family members that put their hands on our drivers, we’re going to react,” NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer said Wednesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, per NASCAR.com. “There’s not a lot of detail I’m going to get into due to the fact that these are appealable penalties, and I want to make sure that we’re fair to that process.
“With that being said, and we’ve been consistent about this when crew members and family members get involved, we are going to react. That’s exactly what we did.”
Kevin Harvick explains why Kyle Busch was wong with Ricky Stenuouse Jr.
Stenhouse Jr. and Busch were fighting because Busch hit Stenhouse in the second lap of the All-Star race leading to Stenhouse being eliminated from the competion. Busch hit him because he claims that he was hit by Stenhouse. Harvick beleives Busch took his frustations out on Stenhouse for everything that’s been going on with him this year.
“I think Kyle’s also frustrated with his situation, and everything he has going on currently,” Harvick said. “I think that we finally have seen the trigger that pushed Kyle over the edge, with the performance of what they’ve been doing on the race track, and the things that have been happening. So you can tell that he’s frustrated and not happy, and I don’t know any other way to put that.
“When you look at Stenhouse and his situation, with the things that he said and where he was with Kyle Busch, he just felt like it was time to be done with it, and I think they both took the opportunity of the All-Star Race to settle those things up.”
On3’s Steve Samra contributed to the story.