Ricky Stenhouse Jr. shares his take on Kyle Busch-Corey LaJoie incident at Pocono

After Sunday's 400-miler at Pocono Raceway was over, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. revealed his take on the contact between Corey LaJoie and Kyle Busch, which resulted in an on-track mayhem following a late-race restart. LaJoie spun Busch, seemingly initiating the multi-car crash with 40 laps to go.

Moments after the restart, Busch blocked LaJoie as the duo headed into turn 1. The field went five wide at the time, and LaJoie nosed Busch's bumper, spinning him off the track into the grass and then back into the ongoing traffic. Busch finished 32nd and received his 5th DNF in the last 7 races.

Reflecting on the incident, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. opined that perhaps the safest place to run following a restart was the bottom lane. Speaking of which, the JTG Daugherty Racing driver told journalist Bob Pockrass:

"The 8 (Kyle Busch) was trying to block the 7 (Corey LaJoie). The 7 was pretty aggressive going to the inside. I felt like he was gonna be too early for crashes to happen. This happened at Nashville obviously; I restarted on the bottom and felt like, alright, maybe we could get through one corner and I pick the top and a guy crashes as well."

"So, I guess the safest place is the bottom of these restarts. Seems like nobody just lifts from the inside and kind of wipes off the track and cleans us out," he added.

Currently, Kyle Busch is 102 points behind the provisional elimination line. Needless to say, the Richard Childress Racing driver needs to win a race to make this year's playoffs. Busch has amassed two top-10s in his last 10 points-paying races. His most recent top-5 finish came at this year's Würth 400, but that too, was back in April.

Kyle Busch keeps mum on his tussle with Corey LaJoie

After getting checked and released from the infield care center at Pocono Raceway, Kyle Busch was asked what he thought of LaJoie's antics. Strangely, Kyle Busch did not blame Corey LaJoie for wrecking him.

When asked if the former felt the need to sort things out with LaJoie, the 39-year-old, Las Vegas native said:

"Nah, I just want to thank all of our partners and everybody that’s been behind our program at RCR, ECR Engines, obviously Zone nicotine pouches and Cheddar’s, Lucas Oil, everybody for their support and continuing to back us and be behind us, and of course the fans and Rowdy Nation as well, too."

However, as the race continued following the wreck, Corey LaJoie felt that Busch had wrecked himself.

"He hooked himself,” LaJoie radioed to his team, as reported by Toby Christie on X.

“F*** him,” a crew member replied. "We ain’t worried about him. We’re worried about ourselves."

With 5 races to go till NASCAR kicks off the round of 16 openers at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch sits 18th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 428 points to his name. Whereas, Corey LaJoie sits 30th with 301 points. Their next race is at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 21.