Friday 5: Should NASCAR let drivers fight or break up confrontations quickly?

Tyler Reddick looks at last week’s altercation between Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson at Kansas Speedway and admits it “was kind of a bummer that it was broken up” after Chastain punched Gragson and Gragson didn’t have a chance to respond.

It’s not that Reddick has any ill will toward Chastain, it’s just the idea of a fight between drivers being broken up by NASCAR officials so early.

“If you’re going to break it up really early, break it up as soon as Noah puts his hand on Ross,” Reddick said. “Don’t wait for someone to throw the first punch. Then the guy that gets hit or missed by that first punch doesn’t have a chance to throw one back.

“I think from the driver’s point of view, why even go there and do anything? Looking at how that one went (between Chastain and Gragson), you’ve just got to go up and sucker punch somebody and that’s going to be the end of it. You’re not going to get hit back.”

Last weekend’s issues started on the track. Gragson was upset with how Chastain raced him, causing Gragson to hit the wall. Gragson responded by hitting Chastain’s car.

After the race, Gragson confronted Chastain on pit road, grabbed Chastain and shook him before Chastain punched Gragson. NASCAR security then separated the two before Gragson could throw a punch.

Reddick wasn’t the only driver to speak up about if drivers should be left to fight or separated quickly.

Harrison Burton, who was involved in a fight with Gragson in July 2020 after the Xfinity race at Kentucky, noted there could be situations where it is best to stop a fight quickly. But Burton also raised questions about breaking up the altercation between Chastain and Gragson.

“You just don’t want to have a guy get punched in the face and not be able to do anything