The action off the track got just as intense as the NASCAR All-Star race, with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. throwing a punch at Kyle Busch in the pits.
The rematch was a cold dish for Stenhouse, who waited 198 laps after being pushed into the wall on the second lap of the race to face Busch on Sunday local time.
Stenhouse had hit Busch on the first lap, and Busch had retaliated one turn later, spinning Stenhouse and taking him out of the race.
“To be honest with you… he didn’t run it high,” Fox Sports commentator Clint Bowyer said.
“Stenhouse took a holeshot at that point, and he didn’t do anything wrong at that point,” Kevin Harvick added.
“They had contact on the corner, but he was well outpaced in the middle lane.”
Stenhouse limped back into the pits — and parked in Busch’s box in defiance — before approaching Busch’s crew chief, Randall Burnett, for a word.
Burnett simply shrugged, but that was never going to be enough for Stenhouse, who was forced to wait in the infield until the end of the race due to the fact that the North Wilkesboro track had no way for people to exit while the race was in progress.
The pair had a heated conversation when they met, leading to Stenhouse, 36, throwing a punch that sparked an argument between their crew members.
Stenhouse later told AP he was tired of hearing Busch “talk about me” after he demolished him at Daytona in the past.
“I know he’s frustrated because he’s not running as well as he used to,” Stenhouse said.
The race, a $1 million exhibition for the winner, was won by Joey Logano, his second All-Star title after his success in 2016.
The action was delayed 16 minutes by Fox television to allow three-time winner Kyle Larson to take to the track after qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day.
Larson shocked the American motorsport world by qualifying fifth for the historic Indianapolis 500 in a McLaren car, averaging 232.729 miles per hour for his four-lap stint in the top six for next weekend’s race.
Former New Zealand Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin topped the charts by setting a pole qualifying record of 376.941km/h, with Australian Will Power in second.
“Qualifying went a lot better than I could have hoped for or anticipated,” said Larson, who will attempt to become the second driver to achieve “The Double” on May 26 by completing all laps of the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.
“It was a really great team,” he added, “and they put together a great race car that sticks to the track and has speed as well.”
Larson arrived in North Carolina for his NASCAR race about three hours after getting out of his Indycar.
The 31-year-old took a helicopter to a nearby airfield, where a private jet took him 500 miles southwest to North Wilkesboro, where another helicopter flew him to the racetrack.
