Things got hot during Saturday’s NASCAR Truck Series at Talladega Superspeedway after two drivers ended up crashing. But things between wheelmen Nick Sanchez and Matt Crafton would only get more combustible from there.
Nick Sanchez comments on Matt Crafton incident
Nick Sanchez was trying to move ahead on the front stretch with three laps to go when he made contact with Matt Crafton’s vehicle, sending both spinning into a mess of metal.
The crash forced Crafton out of the race, which left the driver of the No. 88 Ford F-150 a little miffed. He decided to take things beyond the track and get physical with Sanchez. And (of course) the entire blow-up was caught on video.
The clip shows a bloodied Nick Sanchez – who has clearly been hit near the eye – being pushed away from Crafton. Initially, he’s seen going ballistic and yelling, “I’m gonna f***ing kill you in Homestead. You f***ed with the wrong guy, motherf***er.
“Cheap shot, but it is what it is. I’m all for fighting, but no cheap shots. I got a cheap shot. Never had a chance to get him back. It is what it is. It’s a part of racing,” Nick Sanchez claimed following the confrontation.
Matt Crafton disagreed in a statement of his own.
“First, let’s address the ‘sucker punch.’ Before the cameras started rolling, I approached Nick and said, ‘hey’ when he turned around I said ‘what the —?!’ to which he looked right at me and threatened me. That is when it all went to hell. I had his attention, and words were exchanged, all before anything physical took place, so I did not ‘sucker punch’ the guy. There may not be video, but there were plenty of eyewitnesses.”
The pair of pit row pugilists next meet on the track on Saturday, October 21, at the Baptist Health 200 in Homestead, Florida.
Follow Ryan Boman on X