Kyle Larson set a speed record as a rookie at Indy and put himself onto the front two rows on the starting grid before flying back to finish 4th in the All-Star race.
Joey Logano absolutely dominated the All-Star race and won a million bucks in the process.
But no one is talking about that stuff right now.
Right now, everyone is talking about the fireworks between Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. While the All-Star race is a prestigious race to win and a financial windfall for the race winner, it means nothing for points. But that doesn’t stop drivers from taking offense at any slight on track.
Before tires had even a chance to come up to pressure, Stenhouse took Kyle Busch three-wide which caused Busch to get loose and tag the wall. That was enough of a slight to anger Busch who promptly ran up to and into Stenhouse, turning him into the wall and knocking him out of the race.
Stenhouse parked his car in Busch’s pit a box and had words with his crew chief, Randall Burnett. After the race is when things got even more interesting. During a discussion that got heated and with Kyle Busch pretty much dismissing Ricky, Stenhouse let a punch fly out of nowhere which created quite the confrontation between team members as punches and bodies flew.
This isn’t over folks. Stenhouse fells like he has raced cleanly with Busch, and he gets nothing but disrespect from Busch. We all know Kyle can run his mouth and holds little in reserve when he feels a competitor has done him wrong. To throw down with Kyle when he is not expecting it will not help Stenhouse’s case when they return to the track.
Busch has been known to let his car do the talking for him either by winning or by the bumper. And as frustrating a season as this has been for Busch, he may just let the bumper do the talking. He’ll need to be extra careful that NASCAR doesn’t see it as unnecessary actions detrimental to racing or his season may get worse.
So yeah, Team Penske has quite the day with an all front row for the Indianapolis 500 and a dominating All-Star win. And a million bucks to boot.
What remains to be seen is if the short track testing is what helped Logano, or the tire compounds Goodyear brought to the track or a combo thereof. I guess time will tell on the short tracks coming up for both Logano — as well as Ricky Stenhouse.
(Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
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