Everything about the Kyle Busch-Ricky Stenhouse Jr. brawl was pure entertainment

NASCAR fights happen all the time. Drivers crash, tensions rise, they scrap it out afterwards. This has been a fabric of the sport for decades and NASCAR itself will lean into the animosity from time to time.

But the post-race brawl between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch following Sunday’s All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro? That was pure cinema. Everything about this fight looked like a chaotic ending to an episode of Monday Night Raw. It was so masterfully produced from start to end that you would think that it was a “worked shoot” on the part of all parties involved.

Just take a look at this thing:

Alright, so let’s break this down. On lap two of Sunday’s race, Stenhouse bumped Busch into the wall. Busch, long holding the reputation as one of the biggest jerks in the entire sport, immediately got his retribution by crashing Stenhouse into the wall and ending his night. Keep in mind that this was an All-Star race. Sure, $1 million was on the line, but it’s an exhibition! Imagine if in the first quarter of the NBA All-Star Game, Devin Booker fouled Jimmy Butler, only for Butler to respond by elbowing him in the face.

Anyway, Stenhouse obviously wasn’t happy about this and even parked directly in Busch’s stall to give his pit crew the business. Seemingly everyone knew that these two would have a confrontation after the race ended and we even got pre-fight interviews. Here’s Stenhouse giving us, as we say in the business, a teaser:

It gets better. Busch had an entire dang media entourage walking with him to said fight.

So here are some of my favorite moments of this scrap. We get a cool over the shoulder shot of Busch walking up to the confrontation while Stenhouse, already in street clothes, waits. Shoutout to The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi capturing this perfectly:

“You hit the fence and then you hit me. Go back and watch it.” – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. before throwing the first punch. Stenhouse immediately calls for his dad, which I found funny. Little did I know that is was the elder Stenhouse who was getting his shots in on Busch and the younger Stenhouse was calling for him to stop!

So Stenhouse’s pit crew is trying to get his dad to stop fighting Kyle Busch and in comes who in my opinion is the MVP of this whole ordeal. One of Busch’s pit crew members starts clearing house while belting “GET OFF THIS TRUCK MOTHER******”!”

Every crew needs someone who can regulate the situation at a moment’s notice and this dude stepped right up and earned his keep. His pass protection skills suggests that he was one mean, ornery offensive lineman in a previous life. Also, shoutout to the other pit crew member of Busch’s team letting out an exasperated “WHAT THE F***!”

The exclamation point of this brouhaha is this parting Nugget from Busch:

By the way, did I mention that Joey Logano actually won this race? The man went wire-to-wire from pole to become $1 million richer and it’s just background noise to the fight. Even his post-race interview got overshadowed by the mayhem unfolding.

I just want to say bravo for all parties involved. I am thoroughly sports entertained by this entire ordeal. The action, the drama, the camera angles, surprise characters popping in. Masterfully done. NASCAR will be in Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600 this weekend, but I say get Busch and Stenhouse to Saudi Arabia for WWE’s King and Queen of the Ring event. Give them five minutes in the ring to hash it out once and for all.