Richard Childress was ready to fight Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Richard Childress never misses an opportunity to take off his watch.

The first time he made headlines for saying it, he was ready to fight Kyle Busch. Ironically, this time he wanted to fight alongside Busch. The legendary car owner was not in attendance for the All-Star Race, having left after his grand marshal duties had concluded earlier in the afternoon, but now wishes he had stuck around.

“I would’ve jumped right in the middle of it,” Childress said, speaking at the Helping A Hero Patriot Award Dinner on Tuesday. “… 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 going to tell him if he does, I’m older, but I’ve just changed my style of fighting. He’ll carry a rough ass-beating.”

Since then, Stenhouse has been fined $75,000 and two of his crew members were suspended. Stenhouse called Childress on Wednesday to tell him that he considered the matter closed and that he isn’t actually going to follow through with his threat to wreck Busch this weekend in the Coca-Cola 600.

“I called RC this morning and talked to him,” Stenhouse told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I told him, calm down, I’m not going to wreck your car. Him and I have always had a lot of respect for each other and that whole organization up there so we talked it out.

“He said, basically, that ‘you can beat on Kyle as much as you want, just don’t wreck my race car, please’ so I’m not going to do that. We had a good conversation this morning. All is well with RC.”

Busch, meanwhile, is as resolute about his own frustrations as he was on the first lap of the race. He was also adamant that he was blindsided by Busch, despite being told over the radio to expect company due to what Stenhouse told Richard Childress Racing No. 8 crew chief Randall Burnett after the incident.

Which was, “Tell Kyle, I’ll see him after the race.” Busch was given that message coming down pit road but says he was blindsided by Stenhouse.

He also says he did not intend to wreck Stenhouse.

“To me, it’s just Lap 1. The water is not even hot. The tires aren’t even hot,” Busch told Charlie Marlow of The Kenny Wallace Show. “You’re kind of slipping a little bit but yeah, I ran wide into Turn 1. Gave an opening to the middle. He took it. I gave room on the exit to make sure we didn’t touch, so I touched the fence a little bit. I was touching the fence, and he still ran into me and brushed off on my left front corner.

“So, it was inevitable that I was going to get put in the fence anyways. I wasn’t too pleased about that and did come back and retaliate. It showed my displeasure of that. As one guy once said, I meant to rattle his cage and spin them out didn’t mean for him to overcorrect and stuff in the fence but that’s sort of what happens sometimes.

“And then afterwards obviously, trying to have some casual words. I had no idea his comments of hold my watch or you know, hey, if you want to see something afterwards, hang out until afterwards. Nobody told me. So, I felt like I went into an ambush blind with him and his team and having an idea that they were all kind of set up in different areas. But tried to hold my own the best I could fighting off five different guys and came out of there with no black eyes. So, you know, I guess we’ll see how that progresses going forward and what we do, you know, heading on into the next few weeks.”

Busch can also appreciate what it means when Childress is ready to fight. Again, he’s been on the receiving end of such a conflict.

“I’ve been on that end of things before, you know. I know Richard, and his meanings and how he feels about his team and everybody that works for him, and he’s passionate about the sport in general,” Busch said. “Obviously we know that the ’79 Daytona 500 was built on that. But you know, it’s just the nature of what he’s all about, and that’s protecting what’s his, and what he believes is the right way to go.”

Stenhouse diffused the tension with Childress. How about Busch?

“I’m just moving forward,” Stenhouse said. “For me, I’m done with it. Like I said, other than waiting for NASCAR’s decision, this week has been about the team preparing for Charlotte and making sure we put our best foot forward and put it behind us. …

“Obviously, this is more on social media and the internet and shows talking about it, but fortunately, our guys, they’re not the ones having to do that. Their heads are down, working on the cars, and we’re going to have a good weekend.”

Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter .

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