NASCAR penalty: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to pay heavy price for punching Kyle Busch at North Wilkesboro

After he incited a brawl with Kyle Busch in the aftermath of the All-Star race, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has been handed a major penalty for his actions. Stenhouse confronted Busch outside the #8 team hauler after his race ended early because Busch wrecked him out within the opening laps of the race.

The 2x Cup champion wrecking the JTG Daugherty Racing driver was preceded by another incident between the two where Busch came off worse and held Stenhouse responsible. It led to Busch retaliating, which wrecked Stenhouse out and led to the latter confronting him.

But what began as a verbal spat soon turned into a fistfight as Stenhouse landed the first punch and within seconds, it turned into a brawl with pit crews involved along with Stenhouse's father.

For his actions, NASCAR has now handed Ricky Stenhouse Jr. a fine of $75,000 as he was deemed in violation of NASCAR Member Code of Conduct (Sections 4.4.D in the NASCAR Rule Book).

Furthermore, two crew members from Stenhouse's team were also suspended for multiple races, with team mechanic Clint Myrick getting an eight-race suspension while tuner Keith Matthews getting a four-race suspension along with an indefinite suspension to Stenhouse's father Richard Stenhouse.

---

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wasn't planning to punch Kyle Busch

In a recent appearance on Corey LaJoie's podcast show, Stacking Pennies, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. claimed that initially, he wasn't planning on punching Kyle Busch. Stenhouse said that he went into it thinking that if Busch "de-escalates it, then everything will be fine."

But even with that thought in mind, Stenhouse was "pretty fired up." And as Busch remained adamant about blaming Stenhouse for running him into the wall and kept on about it with "the smirk on his face that he always does," the confrontation escalated to what it became.

Having said that, Stenhouse mentioned the "sucky part" as he expressed that he felt bad after the fight.

"When you wake up the next day, you’re like ‘You know what, I probably shouldn’t have done that,’ because you got kids watching. …But [Busch] also shouldn’t have wrecked me on purpose just because I passed him," he described (via On3.com).

But even though he felt bad, and even though he felt he was wronged by Kyle Busch on the racetrack, it is Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who has come away with a heavy price from the All-Star race.

Not only was his racecar damaged to the point of him not being able to continue within the opening minutes of the race, but he now has to pay a fine of $75,000 and lose two key members from his crew for multiple races.