<\/p>\n
Watch: NASCAR issues penalties to Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 crewmembers<\/p>\n
Anyway, the point is that drivers across all three tours keep saying things like \u2018I wanted to punch him but a NASCAR fine makes it not worth it.\u2019 It\u2019s also poignant to mention that Stenhouse also garnered a great deal of public mainstream attention that week and created countless social media reels for NASCAR and its TV partners to use over the next several years.<\/p>\n
NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran, somewhat, explained why the Sanctioning Body penalizes fighting during a segment on SiriusXM last week.<\/p>\n
“If they have a confrontation … that’s one thing but we do got to watch if it gets into a true fight on pit road, I mean we’ve got concrete all around … some of the drivers are quite different in sizes,” Moran said.<\/p>\n
“You have to be cautious [of fighting], these are professional athletes and we protect our drivers. Every situation is different, you know, the raw emotion, we really don’t want to hold all of that back.<\/p>\n
“The drivers have the right to share their thoughts and feelings with each other and truthfully, if everybody gets to witness that, I don’t think it’s the worst thing that could happen.”<\/p>\n
Thoughts and feelings<\/p>\n
Austin Dillon<\/a> doesn\u2019t consider himself much of a fighter but also doesn\u2019t buy the fine as an excuse for why he wouldn\u2019t throw a punch either.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, if you\u2019re mad enough to want to fight, $50,000 shouldn\u2019t stop you,\u201d said Dillon when asked by Motorsport.com about the topic over the weekend. \u201cI don\u2019t know. It\u2019s all subjective, and I don\u2019t care to get into it. I hope I don\u2019t have to be in that situation, truthfully. Sometimes, frustrations carry out onto the racetrack and there are certain other ways to handle things and NASCAR makes the rules so I don\u2019t know \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n Those other ways have been detailed by his peers and largely include air blocking or holding a rival up when they would otherwise simply let a faster car go by to preserve their own lap times.<\/p>\n Daniel Suarez<\/a> said he wanted to fight Ross Chastain<\/a> after their altercation two weeks ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway but was discouraged by the threat of a $50,000 fine — which drew a comical response from Stenhouse himself.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure where Daniel got his $50,000 from but I wish that\u2019s all it was,\u201d Stenhouse said on Dirty Mo Media\u2019s Gluck Cast last week. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely in your mind, you know? For me going forward, definitely would be in the back of my mind before I pull the trigger on that again.\u201d<\/p>\n What about Busch?<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I\u2019ve had a few skirmishes and I don\u2019t remember the penalties of those lately,\u201d Busch said. \u201cThe Logano thing in 2017, there were no penalties that came out of that one.\u201d<\/p>\n So why did Stenhouse get such a massive number.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was premeditated,\u201d Busch said with a laugh. \u201cWhen you do it in the heat of the moment, you get free reign.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s probably not entirely true now though.<\/p>\n So all of this begs the question of whether NASCAR should be policing physical altercations with massive penalties in the first place. After all, this was a discipline that received its first big jolt of mainstream attention as a result of a fight between Cale Yarborough and the Allison Brothers in the immediate aftermath of the 1979 Daytona 500.<\/p>\n Stenhouse addressed Moran’s rebuttal on the podcast too.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s protection,” Stenhosue said. “In my opinion, I think we all can handle ourselves up there. I mean, we drive race cars at 200 miles an hour. Safety is definitely not a concern of mine. I guess it could be used for them to as why they fine us for it, or, you know, why it\u2019s frowned upon.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, you know, if they opened it up, I don\u2019t know if you have less altercations or more, you know, because there\u2019s definitely drivers that probably wouldn\u2019t go confront somebody if they knew for sure that it was kind of wide open and game on. You know, so I don\u2019t know which way it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n Don’t fight for 25th<\/p>\n Perhaps the most nuanced answer came from Brad Keselowski<\/a> on Saturday at Darlington.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know,\u201d said Keselowski. \u201cYou know, I go back and forth on that one (because) in some light, I love the idea of racing and being able to show the emotion and angst but then, I also think it looks really unprofessional if there\u2019s a brawl every week, right?<\/p>\n \u201cI like hockey and you know, every once and a while, they have fights and things like that, and everybody cheers for it but if every game had a fight, you just go \u2018yeah.\u2019 So I guess my personal opinion on this is like, \u2018if something happens on the track and it’s in the top-5 or top-10, that seems pretty reasonable.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s for 25th, those guys should not be allowed to fight. That is a waste of time and it\u2019s not interesting. It makes everyone looks bad.\u201d<\/p>\n Keselowski reference a fight in the Truck Series in 2016 between John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher at Gateway. It wasn\u2019t really a fight as much as it was a grapple on the banking.<\/p>\n It was, really, a kind of pitiful looking scuffle that resulted in a $15,000 fine to Townley and $12,500 for Gallagher.<\/p>\n \u201cThat did not look good,\u201d Keselowski said with a laugh. \u201cThat\u2019s not, I don\u2019t think, what we\u2019re going for here.\u201d<\/p>\n Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson<\/p>\n Photo by: Larry Placido\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n Bubba Wallace<\/a> liked the hockey analogy and said on Saturday that fights should be man-to-man with no crew guys and should end hockey style too.<\/p>\n \u201cGo to the ground, then you can stop it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Shane Van Gisbergen<\/a> said that fighting in the Australian Supercars series would get a driver banned for a year and isn\u2019t acceptable and believes it shouldn\u2019t be accepted in NASCAR, in his opinion, either.<\/p>\n “If you fought at home, you would be banned for at least a year,” said the three-time champion. “That’s not acceptable there and I don’t know that it should be here either. I honestly don’t know and I haven’t been put in that position… and hopefully it doesn’t happen to me.”<\/p>\n Meanwhile, other drivers with high-profile sponsors say NASCAR largely doesn\u2019t really need to get involved because their own partners discourage them. The last physical altercation William Byron<\/a> was in came back in 2016 when Stephen Nasse intentionally wrecked him in the Snowball Derby.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, my reason for fighting has not been the physical side,\u201d Byron said. \u201cIt’s been the fact that my sponsors, I think would hate it. I have sponsors that I feel like are very, you know, culture driven and I don\u2019t want to upset them.<\/p>\n \u201cSo for me, it’s always been about that more than \u2026 I would love to sometimes, because I have gotten mad and wanted to go fight a fair share of times, but it\u2019s always been in the back of my mind, that it\u2019s not best for my team and my sponsors.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch: Exclusive audio: Hear what Noah Gragson said to Ross Chastain before their fight in Kansas<\/p>\n Driving for Team Penske<\/a> and Shell, Joey Logano<\/a> echoed those sentiments.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know if like throwing haymakers is the right way to do it every time,\u201d Logano said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just NASCAR, if I\u2019m being honest. Here\u2019s the truth: It\u2019s not just a fine that\u2019s stopping you, right?<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, all of these guys, they are not going to care about that too much. It\u2019s a lot, sure, but it\u2019s more about what happens from the sponsorship side and stuff like that, which sticks with you forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Logano has been involved in a handful of altercations, mostly a decade ago and longer, and he says he has to answer for those sometimes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sticks with you forever, right,\u201d Logano said. \u201cI mean, I have lived with a lot of things I did when I was 19-years-old, and I still have to live with those decisions and I\u2019m 35-years-old. It\u2019s just different than it used to be, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Logano says \u2018everything lives on YouTube now\u2019 and it\u2019s harder to create distance from a fight than back in the day and that\u2019s to say nothing of getting older and having kids.<\/p>\n \u201cYou think about that too, for sure, but this doesn\u2019t mean you get walked on,\u201d Logano said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t stick up for yourself. You definitely do that but it\u2019s probably in ways that are not always in the public eye.\u201d<\/p>\n We want your opinion!<\/p>\n What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n![\"Bubba](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-1244028505.jpg\")
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