NASCAR star threatens to "kill" rival following bloody pit lane brawl
Things got extremely heated in the recent NASCAR Truck race at Talladega as Nick Sanchez was left with blood running down his face following an altercation with rival Matt Crafton.
The pair collided in Saturday’s race, resulting in a pileup which involved several trucks.
After the race, a fight ensued after Crafton confronted Sanchez, leaving the latter with a bloody face.
A video surfaced on social media showing Sanchez threatening to “kill” Crafton at the next event.
He said: "I'm going to f****** kill you at Homestead. You f***** with the wrong guy, motherf*****.”
In the video, you can see Sanchez with blood running down his face.
“I mean I was walking back to the hauler, got a tap on my back and got punched in the face. It was a cheap shot. It is what it is, I guess,” Sanchez told local reporters afterwards.
“Yeah, I'm all for fighting, but no cheap shots. I really never had a chance to get him back. It's a part of racing.”
When asked about how he was injured, he added: “No, I think they just glued my face and a slight break over here, I don’t know,” gesturing to the tip of his nose.
“But I’m fine.”
Crafton gave his side of the story on X (formerly Twitter), claiming he was “threatened” by his rival.
“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,” he wrote.
“What people don’t take into account is that he all but ‘sucker punched’ me at 200 mph. The way he pushed my truck gave me no ability to get out of the situation and he was told multiple times during that race the way he was pushing people was going to cause a wreck and going to get people hurt. There is a consistent pattern of certain drivers having a lack of respect on the track, and it was time for someone to say something.
“Am I proud that it got physical? No, but last time I checked everyone on that track is a grown adult. If a man looks at me and threatens me, I am going to react. Especially when tempers are already flared from being wrecked on the track.
“I apologise to my team, my sponsors and partners, my family, and the NASCAR community for the negativity and for taking attention away from a good day of racing at Talladega.”
