Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s spotter speaks out about fight with Kyle Busch: ‘Proud of my driver’
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. stood up for himself after being wrecked by Kyle Busch during the 2024 NASCAR All-Star Race, and his spotter is proud of the No. 47 wheelman.
Tab Boyd, Stenhouse Jr.’s voice in his ear during the race, took to social media to share his fondness for the way his driver handled himself after Busch ended the No. 47’s evening on Lap 2 in North Wilkesboro. Stenhouse Jr. confronted Busch after the race was over, and it led to a brawl near Busch’s hauler.
“Proud of my driver…. Man of his word,” Boyd posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Of course, NASCAR might feel different, as Stenhouse Jr. and Busch’s fight has taken headlines away from their All-Star weekend. However, many are seeing it as a legendary moment, and the juice NASCAR has needed to crossover into the mainstream.
Regardless, the aforementioned altercation stemmed from Stenhouse Jr. being put into the wall by Busch on Lap 2 of the 200-lap race. With $1,000,000 on the line, both drivers were on edge and looking for every edge they could gain early in the race, and the money could’ve gone a long way from Stenhouse Jr.’s single-car team.
A large contingent agreed that on the ensuing replay, it looked like Stenhouse didn’t really do anything wrong to Busch. He ran up the middle and Busch got into the wall. So, the No. 47 wheelman was certainly stewing over the situation.
“I’m not sure why he was so mad,” Stenhouse Jr. told FOX, following the altercation. “I shoved it three-wide, but I mean, he hit the fence and kind of came off the wall and ran into me. I don’t know when I was talking him he kept saying that I wrecked him. So, definitely built up frustration with how he runs his mouth all the time about myself, but I know he’s frustrated because he doesn’t run as well as he used to. I understand that. We’re a single-car team over here, we’re working really hard to go out and get better each and every weekend.
“You know, we had a really good game plan coming in. Our car was really strong. Friday in practice I was looking forward to running to the front. I think we’d pass a couple of cars there. I was excited for the rest of the night and he ruined it. Being stuck in here definitely doesn’t help the frustration, if there was a tunnel I’d have probably been at home watching the end of that. So, here we are.”
Evidently, Busch’s frustrations were a long time coming, “I’m tired of being run over by everybody,” Busch told FOX. “But that’s what everybody does. Everybody runs over everybody to pass everybody.”
We’ll see how Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch race each other moving forward, but it’s evident there isn’t a lot of love between the two at the moment.
On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.