The 2024 Coca-Cola 600 is just around the corner, but people are still talking about the All-Star race. To be specific, the post-race brawl between Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr is doing the rounds on social media. Aside from the dogfight, the immediate aftermath was also a major talking point.

As it turned out, Stenhouse Jr and his team received a slew of penalties, including a $75,000 fine for the driver. It is safe to say that several NASCAR drivers were surprised at the decision, including 2020 champion Chase Elliott.

Elliott was pretty surprised with the amount that Stenhouse Jr had to fork out. According to him, it was a heck of a lot of money for the punch. However, what really baffled him was that NASCAR was also promoting the same fight and hyping it up. Frankly, he found it a little hypocritical that Stenhouse Jr would be punished and lauded at the same time.

It is mentioned that a number of drivers had a similar opinion on the matter. Among them was 2-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who sought clarification of the regulations. He insisted that he did not want to get involved in the fight and that it was not his place to judge. However, unlike Chase Elliott, Logano wanted some consistency in enforcing punishments and clarification of the rules because he was aware that no two situations are the same.

Looking at the video, one can say that Chase Elliott was struck speechless by the scenario. Especially since NASCAR was blatantly using the fisticuffs as promotional material. It was sending mixed signals to the drivers, where, on one hand, such behavior was frowned upon. On the other end of the scale, a pit road fight was great for building up engagement among the fans and increasing popularity.

NASCAR fans also backed Chase Elliott’s stance about the fight

Some fans observed that the Hendrick Motorsports star was being as diplomatic as possible. However, one fan hit the nail on the head, “You can tell he wanted to say more.”

Another fan harked back to the comments of other drivers about the incident, and they said, “Chase is absolutely correct and not the first to say the same thing this week”. Someone else couldn’t believe that he was on the same page as the #9 driver, “Never agreed with Chase more. What are we doing?”

There were also some people pointing out some irony. A fan said, “So Chase got suspended last season for retaliation but Busch gets off Scott free for purposefully wrecking Stenhouse for *checks notes* passing him legally?”.

There were also responses like, “I can’t believe I actually agree with Chase Elliott for once” and “Chase spittin’ facts.” One thing was for certain: NASCAR came out of this with eggs all over their faces.