Fans & Drivers Blast NASCAR For Fining Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Over Kyle Busch Punch While Using Video Of The Fight In Promos

Gonna have your cake and eat it too, eh? In case you somehow missed it, the biggest moment of the NASCAR All-Star Race last weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway came not on the track but in the garage after the race when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. delivered a right hook to Kyle Busch's jaw. Stenhouse was upset after Busch wrecked him on lap 2 of the race, with Busch apparently thinking Stenhouse had ran him into the wall the lap before but video showing that the two cars never touched until Busch dumped Stenhouse. https://twitter.com/NASCARONFOX/status/1792354521097642289 And Stenhouse was waiting by Busch's hauler after the race. And after a heated conversation, Stenhouse decided that the time for talking was over and took a swing at Busch, landing a right hook on his jaw as Busch's pit crew jumped in to try to protect their driver. https://twitter.com/NASCARONFOX/status/1792374824448253982 Stenhouse's father then got in on the action, landing a punch on Busch who then took some swings at the elder Stenhouse, before pit crews were able to separate the two. https://twitter.com/Jordan_Bianchi/status/1792375477857915211 Well today NASCAR issued their penalties for the post-race scuffle, including a $75,000 fine for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., an indefinite suspension for his father, and suspensions for two more of Stenhouse's crew that was involved in the fight. But fans, and even some drivers, are calling out NASCAR for penalizing Stenhouse while at the same time using video of the fight all over social media to promote the sport. On their official Twitter account, NASCAR has posted photos or videos of the fight no less than five times since it all went down. And people were quick to jump on the sport for their hypocrisy after issuing the fines:

🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻 How many clips did you post of the incident? How many times will it be shown on TV this weekend?

— Scott C. Ford Jr (@ScottCFordJr1) May 22, 2024

Y’all promoted the hell out of the fight from this account, got tons of press and then fine them.

— The System (@tealtalk) May 22, 2024

But then y'all gonna use the video all over social media to promote NASCAR & encourage more confrontations like that?! That's ridiculous.

— The Morning 5 (@TheMorningFive) May 22, 2024

https://twitter.com/GarageGuyChase/status/1793255375090708558 https://twitter.com/cash_trevor/status/1793251437549326626 NASCAR Cup Series driver Daniel Suarez even called out NASCAR: https://twitter.com/Daniel_SuarezG/status/1793261562511101976 And Dale Earnhardt Jr. stopped short of criticizing the penalties, but admitted that he was surprised at how hard NASCAR came down on Stenhouse and his crew: https://twitter.com/DaleJr/status/1793252830582649043 Of course it was the most (only?) entertaining part of the whole race, so it makes sense that NASCAR would want to promote it. And I'm sure the fact that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. waited around for the entire race to confront Kyle had a lot to do with the penalty and the severity. But you've gotta admit, NASCAR is loving the attention that it's bringing to the sport. So it's a little weird that they would then turn around and penalize the driver for it.