NASCAR Under Fire For Two-Faced Move That Has Fans, Drivers Crying Foul
Fine, I'll say it – NASCAR looks so, so dumb today. Well, actually, I don't know.
Maybe dumb isn't the right word. Petty (not Richard!)? Hypocritical? Two-faced? I guess one of those will work. I'll let y'all decide which to use. It's a free country.
After spending days and days aaaaaand days promoting the hell out of Sunday's viral fight between Ricky Stenhouse Jr., his daddy, and Kyle Busch, NASCAR levied a whopper of a fine on RSJ late yesterday to the tune of $75,000.
Huh? Come again? I don't get it, and I'm not alone. Current drivers are confused. Former drivers are confused. Fans are pissed. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has thoughts.
Here's what everyone wants to know as we sit here today … what, exactly, does NASCAR want moving forward?
NASCAR fines Ricky Stenhouse Jr., suspends others
So, here are the nuts and bolts of it all …
NASCAR is fining Stenhouse Jr. $75k, suspending his dad indefinitely, and suspending team mechanic Clint Myrick for eight races. There are a couple other minor suspensions out there for other crew members, but those are the three biggies.
"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 told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
As for why Stenhouse was fined an ungodly amount – for context, Ross Chastain was fined exactly $0 for punching Noah Gragson just last season – Sawyer said it boiled down to Ricky waiting 198 laps for the race to end to cold-cock Kyle Busch into next week.
"Once we get to the point where it gets physical, we want the two drivers to be able to have time to express their differences. Once it escalates to a physical altercation, we are going to react," Sawyer continued.
"Granted there was no tunnel, granted there was no crossover bridge (to allow Stenhouse Jr. to leave the track), better decisions could have been made throughout that period of time between the incident on the race track and the incident in the garage post-race."
That's all well and good, but …
Yeah, I don't get it. I don't.
So, let me get this straight: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was intentionally wrecked on Lap 2, couldn't leave the track until the race ended because there are no tunnels to the outside world, and because of that, he gets fined $75,000?
So … what if he got wrecked on Lap 198 and then decided to have it out with Kyle Busch? That would've been acceptable, in the eyes of NASCAR? Because that hypothetical punch would've happened in a timely manner, it's all ham & eggs?
The reasoning is as flawed as the message NASCAR is trying to send here, which is, frankly, the bigger issue.
Eleven. That's how many social media posts the official NASCAR Twitter account sent out after the fight. 11!
And guess what? Every single one of them promoted the fight. They all promoted Ricky Stenhouse Jr. At one point Sunday night, there were four straight tweets about the fight, with four different camera angles!
They even had their fancy little graphics team put together a fancy little graphic about how badass the whole thing was. Folks, they used RICKY STENHOUSE JR. to promote the newest episode of Corey LaJoie's Stacking Pennies podcast … which is a podcast on NASCAR.com!
That podcast dropped on Monday. Two days later, NASCAR fined Ricky Stenhouse Jr. $75,000. Crooks! That's what they are. This is thievery. And it's embarrassing.
Here's the truth – NASCAR should be paying Ricky Stenhouse Jr. $75,000. Hell, FOX should chip in, too! Maybe a fruit basket. I don't know. Something.
Ricky essentially told FS1 viewers to stick around after the race to see how he would handle it. Guess what? The actual racing stunk on Sunday. Joey Logano led every lap.
You know why I didn't put my ass to bed at 10 p.m. on a Sunday during a boring race? Because I wanted to see if Ricky was gonna make good on his promise. And he did.
NASCAR fans, drivers are equally confused
Coincidence? Maybe. But … maybe not.
Spending all week riding a guy's coattails and getting all this free publicity – hello, Pat McAfee show! – only to turn around and slap him with a $75,000 fine is absurd. It makes no sense. It's silly.
So, again, what exactly do y'all want, NASCAR? Because nobody knows right now, including your own drivers, past and present:
They use it all as promotional material, and then they fine the man that gave them all the promotional material.
Bingo. Kenny Wallace, who is routinely the voice of reason in this sport (along with Dale Jr.), nails it again.
I don't want to see one more tweet from NASCAR about the fight. I don't want to see it on a single shirt, poster, hat or cup in the official NASCAR store or merchandise hauler. Don't you dare.
If this is the path NASCAR wants to take, go for it. It's the wrong one, but knock yourselves out.
But don't expect fans and drivers alike not to smell your BS from a mile away.
Frankly, it's hard not to, because the entire industry REEKS today.
If you somehow made it all the way to the end of this rant, feel free to email me at Zach.Dean@OutKick.com