Denny Hamlin says Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had to fight Kyle Busch after his previous comments

Denny Hamlin understands that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had to fight Kyle Busch due to what he said during the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. On Hamlin’s Actions Detrimental podcast, he explained why Stenhouse could not back down from Busch during their post-race confrontation.

“Before his face-to-face with Kyle, he put himself in a box,” Hamlin said about Stenhouse. “He put himself in a box on TV by saying he was going to do something. Ricky is one of those stand-up humans that when he tells you he’s going to do something, he’s probably going to do it.”

Hamlin went on to say that the only way Busch was not going to get punched was if he apologized to Stenhouse for running into him. The 43-year-old also agreed with Stenhouse saying he didn’t bump into Busch until Busch hit the wall first.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was more than ready to fight Kyle Busch

During the second lap of the race, Busch ran into Stenhouse, which led to him wrecking his car and being eliminated from the race. “We passed him. We left the middle open there,” Stenhouse said after the accident. “Short race, you’re trying to get all you get. We passed him, and I guess [Busch] was mad. Parked my car in the pit box. I figured he would do something like that. Maybe Richard [Childress] will hold my watch after the race.”

And after the fight, Stenhouse wasn’t done going after Busch. “Yeah, just definitely built-up frustration with how he runs his mouth all the time about myself. But I know he’s frustrated because he doesn’t run near as good as he used to, and I understand that,” he said.

“We’re a single-car team over here. We’re working really hard to go out and get better each and every weekend, and we had a really good game plan coming in. Our car was really strong Friday in practice. I was looking forward to running to the front. I think we had passed a couple cars there and I was excited for the rest of the night, and he ruined it.”

Stenhouse added: “I don’t have anything else for him. If we want to do a charity match, I would do that, raise some money for maybe the NASCAR Foundation or something. That would be fun. Really other than that, I don’t have a whole lot for him.”