The North Wilkesboro All-Star Race brawl between Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. remains one of the most replayed flashpoints of the season, a dust-up that kindled barely two laps into the event.
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Stenhouse, furious after being wrecked early, threw the opening punch while Busch appeared more interested in cooling tempers than trading blows after the race. But according to Kyle Larson, Stenhouse hardly needs a provocation. In Larson’s eyes, Stenhouse simply has a punchable face.
That remark surfaced long before last year’s mayhem, during Larson’s 2018 appearance on Jeff Gluck’s 12 Questions series. When Gluck asked which driver carried the most punchable face, Larson admitted he had already warned Stenhouse his name would come up.
“I was telling Ricky Stenhouse, ‘Ah, there’s a question about who has the most punchable face, so I’m gonna say you,'” Larson recalled. His reasoning went back to a chaotic night at the Knoxville Nationals. And that particular evening, the drivers took full advantage.
Larson explained that he and Stenhouse were really intoxicated, surrounded by friends, when a lighthearted wrestling match broke out. In the haze of the moment, Larson fired off a quick jab. Stenhouse returned the favor. Another jab from Larson and then another from Stenhouse.
Before long, they were tangled up in a playful scuffle that ended with Stenhouse getting the better of Larson. The next morning, Larson’s jaw throbbed as the memories slowly resurfaced.
“I was like, ‘Man, my jaw hurts.’ We’re golfing the next morning. I’m like, ‘We were punching each other last night, weren’t we?'” he said. That night confirmed one takeaway in Larson’s mind: “So Ricky’s got the most punchable face in NASCAR.”
When asked how he managed to forget throwing and absorbing those punches, Larson chalked it up to the numbing effects of the evening. In fact, he joked that the whole scenario might make his own face just as punchable.
The memory resurfaced after last year’s viral Busch-Stenhouse clash. While fans debated who would win in a straight-up fight, Larson picked Stenhouse. His reasoning had nothing to do with bone structure, nerves, or stature.
Larson insisted Stenhouse would outlast almost anyone because he refuses to back down. The 2025 Cup champion described him as the kind of fighter who would just keep scrapping for any advantage he could get.
With Larson and Stenhouse known to be good friends off the track, having come up from similar dirt-racing backgrounds, their competitive side in NASCAR has yet to pit them against one another. If that does ever happen, we know whose side Larson is on.
