Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had plenty of reasons to throw “The Punch” at North Wilkesboro Speedway (not to be confused with “The Haymaker” thrown by Ross Chastain last year).
You could chalk it up to how early Kyle Busch set out to wreck him in misguided retaliation on Lap 2 of Sunday’s (May 19) NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race.
“I’m pretty calm, I don’t really get super angry,” Stenhouse said on Corey LaJoie’s “Stacking Pennies” podcast. “(It’s the) second lap. That was [Busch’s] side (of it). He’s like, hey, it’s first lap. … the water didn’t get hot.”
Maybe it was because Busch, despite not having seen the replays everyone else saw, was adamant Stenhouse walled him on the first lap.
“He kept on about that,” Stenhouse recalled.
Or maybe he was set off by Busch having “that smirk on his face that he always does,” Stenhouse continued.
On top of all that, despite the purse not having increased in decades, a $1 million prize to win the All-Star Race is still a lot for a one-car team like JTG Daugherty Racing.
Heck, just being in the main event is “huge.”
“We won the (Daytona) 500 (in 2023),” Stenhouse said. “It’s still a big deal, right? And made the playoffs.
“Another thing that was pretty frustrating is we are a single-car team, there’s 35 employees that have to do this each and every week and there’s a lot of times I feel like we punch above our weight, no pun intended.”
And as a team, JTG Daugherty has “struggled on the short tracks.” The All-Star race offered them a chance at redemption from what’s been a tough year: one lap led, one top-five finish and 26th in the current point standings.
“We threw something totally different in (the car),” Stenhouse said. “We had a decent practice on Friday. We’re good on average, everybody’s close, everybody’s tight. And it’s like ‘Alright, we’re gonna see what we got now that everybody’s on the same tires and stacked up with each other. For a lap and a quarter, it felt pretty good.”
If there’s anyone who can relate to Stenhouse when it comes to struggling, it’s Busch.
The Richard Childress Racing driver has just two top fives through 13 points races and five top 10s.
“I suck just as bad as you!” Busch yelled at Stenhouse from his hauler.
It’s two Chevrolet teams who aren’t as far apart as you might think. Before Sunday’s race, Stenhouse and Busch’s crew chief,…
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