Getty Richard Childress at All-Star Open.
Richard Childress once scuffled with Kyle Busch back in 2011. In other words, the older owner wasn’t afraid to mix it up with a much younger driver. Surprisingly, more than a dozen years later, the 78-year-old still has that spark and isn’t backing down from anyone.
He revealed as much while speaking at a dinner when asked about the altercation between his driver Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at the May 19 All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro.
Richard Childress had a message for Ricky Stenhouse Jr when we talked to him today prior to the Helping A Hero Patriot Award Dinner. He says if Ricky touches @KyleBusch‘s 8 car at Charlotte, he will whoop Ricky’s A$$ personally. He also wishes he had stayed to fight Sunday.
“I would’ve jumped right in the middle of it,” Childress candidly offered. “I don’t fight as fair as I used to. I’m a little older. Ricky Stenhouse said that he was going to wreck the 8 car at Charlotte. Well, when I see him, I’m gonna tell him if he does, I’m older, but I’ve just changed my style of fighting. He’ll carry a rough (expletive)-beating.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Referenced Richard Childress & His Watch Comment
The story goes: Childress was furious with Busch after a 2011 Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway, where Busch contacted Joey Coulter, who drove for RCR at the time. After the race, the owner told Austin Dillon, his grandson, to “hold my watch” and got into a skirmish with Busch.
Childress humorously brought up the conflict during Busch’s announcement of his move to RCR at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2023 and also presented the driver with a watch.
Stenhouse referenced the watch story following his incident with Busch at North Wilkesboro during his post-race interview on Fox.
“We passed him. He left the middle open there,” the 2023 Daytona 500 champion told Fox’s Jamie Little. “You know, short race you’re trying to get all you can get. We passed him and I guess he was mad. So parked my car in the pit box. I figured he’d do something like that. Maybe Richard will hold my watch after the race.”
Richard Childress Racing & Kyle Busch Have Struggled in 2024
Busch is understandably frustrated after the first 13 races, or halfway through the 2024 Cup Series regular season. He’s recorded just five top 10s, two of them top 5s at Dover (4th) and Atlanta (3rd). He has a middle-of-the-pack average finishing position of 16.0.
Last year, his first at RCR, the No. 8 pilot had five top 10s in the same number of races, but two of them were wins. However, after recording his third win of 2023 at Gateway in the 16th race on the schedule, the driver’s performance notably declined.
In the final half or 18 races of last season, he earned six top-10 results, four of them inside the top 5. When combining the second half of last season with the first 13 races of 2024, in those 31 races, the future Hall of Famer has 11 top 10s and six top 5s. In other words, sub-Busch-like numbers. Or are they?
Now 39, the two-time champ has won seven times in the last four years. Prior to that, he hadn’t won fewer than four races in a single year, dating back to 2014.
But to suggest it’s all on Busch isn’t accurate. Austin Dillon has struggled as well. The No. 3 has managed just two top 20s in the first 13 events, and has an average starting position of 21.2 and an average finishing position of 25.5 — which as of now, would both be career-worst numbers since he started full-time Cup racing in 2014.
There’s plenty of frustration to go around at RCR. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. felt some of it at North Wilkesboro. It’ll be interesting to see if he is on the receiving end of it again at Charlotte.
And the drama continues.