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NASCAR security squelched the Kansas Speedway skirmish between Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson immediately after Chastain threw a punch, but several drivers said a week later that the scuffle was stopped too soon.
“I feel like security stepped in about 10 seconds too quick,” Kyle Busch said. “You let one guy get a hell of a hit and then you block the other guy from getting a hit back. At least let the guy try and then maybe get one in.”
Busch said he would encourage NASCAR to adopt some hockey rules.
“Once you get to the ground, we’re going to break it up, or when one of you guys look gassed, we’re going to break it up,” Busch continued. “Let them get a good 30 seconds in. A round in boxing is three minutes. There’s isn’t a damn one of us that’s going to make a round of three minutes. So, if it’s 15, 20, 30 seconds, whatever, come up with a number, start the clock, let’s go. It’s going to be way better for TV and ratings are going to go off the charts.”
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Denny Hamlin agreed with Busch that NASCAR security broke up the scuffle too quickly.
“You gotta let them work it out for a little bit longer,” Hamlin said. “There’s risk in anything. I understand the whole hurt thing, but if you’re worried about getting hurt, you probably shouldn’t do something bad on the race track.
“Noah certainly got the bad end of it. I think he was halfway to having a real nice connection on the second.”
Hamlin theorized that in a self-policing environment like the one NASCAR promotes that if the opportunity to hash out an issue after a race is removed, then they would be more likely to handle it on the race track.
“I don’t know which one you deem worse,” Hamlin said.
Gragson confronted Chastain on pit road after the AdventHealth 400 because of an incident that occurred during the race. Gragson grabbed Chastain’s uniform with his left hand and Chastain held Gragson’s right arm. When Gragson shoved Chastain, the Florida native threw a punch with his right fist.
“You guys don’t see a lot of the emotion that we carry inside the helmet,” William Byron said. “That’s the part of this sport that’s different than every other sport and sometimes letting some of that emotion out after the race is healthy. Kind of being able to scuffle a little bit and get some emotions out gets you past it quicker. It’s just a very emotional environment.”
Kyle Larson notes the job of NASCAR security is to diffuse a situation as soon as they believe it’s gotten out of hand.
“But obviously, if somebody gets hit, you want to see a fair return … or an attempted return,” Larson said.
Larson said that pound-for-pound he would probably lose a fight.
“I want security to break them up before they ever get to my car,” Larson said with a laugh and then added, “just kidding.”
“I don’t foresee myself ever being in a situation like that. I think everybody understands it’s not going to be an equal fight with me. They’ll end up looking bad because I’m a little fella.”
Larson said he couldn’t foresee a scenario where he would be in the mood to fight or want to fight.
“I feel like competitors would probably know as they come over that I’m not gonna fight,” Larson continued. “I’m not a fighter.”
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