Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race was largely overshadowed by the post-race altercation between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch after the race, which has received a ton of publicity in the days afterward. Perhaps too much publicity for Chase Elliott’s liking.
NASCAR handed out an extremely harsh punishment for Stenhouse, who was the clear perpetrator behind the altercation by throwing the first punch. It was a $75,000 fine, the largest that has been handed out by NASCAR to a driver.
Stenhouse was clearly made an example of by NASCAR. But when reacting to the hefty fine, Chase Elliott called out NASCAR for their hypocrisy in this situation, issuing this huge fine for Stenhouse while also heavily promoting the fight on social media outlets in the following days afterward.
“$75,000? Wow, I heard he got fined but I didn’t know it was 75 grand,” said Elliott via Fox NASCAR reporter Bob Pockrass. “Yeah, that’s a lot of money. That seems wild to me. Trying to think about what to say. That seems like a lot for that situation. You’re gonna fine him but you’re going to promote with it? Like what are we doing? That’s a little strange to me. That’s just the first thought that comes to my mind. It’s a lot of money to fine a guy. It’s not okay but we’re gonna blast it all over everything to get more clicks.”
It’s an excellent point from Elliott. You can’t condemn Stenhouse this hard and then also want the video to be all over social media at the same time.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, NASCAR posted several different camera angles of the fight, and also even had Stenhouse on the Stacking Pennies podcast with top driver Corey LaJoie, which is sponsored by NASCAR and was promoted on their social media pages.
.@CoreyLaJoie: "What was your scale of mad at that point in time, 1-10?"@StenhouseJr: "11."
A can't-miss Stacking Pennies is available now.
Apple: https://t.co/ssOTWe1KOf
Spotify: https://t.co/8O8OwhH7iY
Web: https://t.co/6qqXQnGnoh pic.twitter.com/vc9OSAVrYg— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 20, 2024
So on one hand, NASCAR’s fine of Stenhouse is telling other drivers that this kind of behavior is not acceptable. But since the fight did happen, NASCAR is taking every chance it gets to post about it and even have Stenhouse discuss it publicly on a podcast it sponsors.
NASCAR is sending mixed signals in all the worst ways about this situation. And luckily, Chase Elliott called them out for it.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.