Major boost; Suspended NASCAR Driver Given Green Light For Comeback
According to FOX Sports reporter Bob Pockrass, Ricky Stenhouse Sr.’s suspension from NASCAR has been lifted, allowing him to return to the garage and pits during race weekends. Pockrass posted to social media, stating: “Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s dad, who was suspended from NASCAR following the Kyle Busch fight at the all-star race in May, has been reinstated (which means he can be in the garage/pits during race weekends).” This decision comes following a physical altercation at the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where Stenhouse Sr. engaged in a fight post-race. Following the race, tensions flared, resulting in a physical dispute between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch.
Stenhouse Jr. initiated the conflict with a punch, which was quickly followed by his father’s involvement. Stenhouse Sr. not only joined the fray but also landed a punch on Busch. Reflecting on the incident, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. shared his perspective on the Stacking Pennies podcast:
Dirt racer from back home. I saw him and I was just making sure everybody wasn’t gonna [pummel him] or each other,” he said. “And it looked like all the crew guys were grabbing each other, him included. Just grabbing each other.” NASCAR responded to the incident by sanctioning Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with a $75,000 fine and suspending two crew members.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, commented on the altercation to NASCAR.com at the time: “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. “There’s not a lot of detail I’m going to get into due to the fact that these are appealable penalties, and I want to make sure that we’re fair to that process. With that being said, and we’ve been consistent about this, when crew members and family members get involved, we are going to react. That’s exactly what we did
“When you wait 198 laps and you make those decisions that were made, again, we’re going to react to that. … 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. “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.
