NASCAR Cup Series

Kevin Harvick on Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wreck: 'I have no idea what Kyle Busch is mad at'

Updated May. 22, 2024 5:12 p.m. ET

Joey Logano manhandled the 2024 NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, leading 199 of 200 laps and ultimately winning the race. But, of course, that's not the hot topic for the 40th running of the sport's All-Star Race. Instead, that honor went to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. seeking out Kyle Busch after the race.

On just the second lap of the race, Busch continued to make contact with the rear of Stenhouse's car, which led to the No. 47 car being slammed into the wall and having to come out of the race. After the accident, Stenhouse parked in Busch's pit box and approached his pit crew. When the race finished, Stenhouse then found Busch, discussed what happened and proceeded to take a swing at Busch.

Chaos then ensued, as members of both drivers' pit crews got into a brawl.

Punches thrown between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch after NASCAR All-Star Race

NASCAR announced on Wednesday that Stenhouse was fined $75,000, while the driver's father and two crew members were suspended for their respective roles in the post-race brawl.

On the latest edition of "Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour," host Kevin Harvick was perplexed by why Busch was mad at Stenhouse in the opening seconds of the race.

"When I go back and watch the video, I honestly have no idea what Kyle Busch is mad at. They came up off of Turn 2, Ricky drove through a hole that was big enough to drive a bus through and put him three-wide, and Kyle bounced off the fence and bounced into the side of Ricky, and they made contact. Right here, you could see that Kyle had lost his mind and was angry and drove into Turns 1 and 2 right here and was not letting off until he wrecked him," Harvick said while re-watching the wreck. "I think there's a lot of things here. I think there's something between Ricky and Kyle that Ricky was obviously frustrated about.

"Kyle, obviously, didn't like the position that Ricky put him in off of Turn 2 right there, and maybe there's obviously something that Kyle didn't like about that and probably felt like he was in that position before and felt like this was the night where it all didn't matter; I'm retaliating tonight."

That said, Harvick sees the blow-up as a side effect of Busch's sluggish 2024 campaign.

"I think Kyle's also frustrated with his situation and everything he has going on currently," Harvick said. "I think that we finally have seen the trigger that pushed Kyle over the edge with the performance of what they've been doing on the racetrack and the things that have been happening. You can tell that he's frustrated and not happy. When you look at Stenhouse and his situation with the things that he said and where he was with Kyle Busch, he just felt like it was time to be done with it, and I think they both took the opportunity of the All-Star Race to settle those things out."

Busch is 13th in the Cup Series in total points this season (324), with five top-10 finishes and two top-5 finishes. Last season, Busch finished 14th in the sport and hasn't won a race since June 4, 2023. He's in his second season at Richard Childress Racing (RCR) after spending 15 seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Meanwhile, Stenhouse is 26th in total points (200) and has just two top-10 finishes this season.

Harvick also opined that if Stenhouse was going to approach Busch, he "should've just decked him right in the walk-up," as opposed to waiting to do so.

Kevin Harvick breaks down fight between Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

The post-All-Star NASCAR stretch begins this coming Sunday with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app).

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