Kyle Petty: Nick Sanchez was in the right in confrontation with Stewart Friesen

Kyle Petty is taking the side of Nick Sanchez following his altercation with Stewart Friesen during last weekend’s NASCAR Truck Series race at Bristol.

The NASCAR analyst explained his stance during his latest Hot Take, with Petty first prefacing his thoughts on the matter by explaining what all went down between Sanchez and Friesen.

“Bristol. It’s the Truck race. We don’t usually talk about the Truck race a lot, but we have to, when you have what happened Saturday afternoon, with Stewart Friesen, and Nick Sanchez,” Petty stated. “Now, what we see here, is a lot of different things. We see one guy with a lot of experience. We see one guy with less experience. And we all see it on the Bristol concrete, man. Where you’ve got to be aggressive, you’ve got to make things happen and you’ve got to make happen in your time.

“Now, what we saw was, and all honesty, that Stewart Friesen was driving the racetrack like there was nobody on the racetrack but him. He came up off the corner, Sanchez had the line. He could have lifted, but that’s not what you get paid for. You don’t get paid to back up, you get paid to go forward. He stuck the nose in there. He turned Friesen into the outside wall. When the race was over with, the confrontation happens. That’s what Bristol is all about, baby. Confrontation and aggression.”

Evidently, Petty is siding with Sanchez on the matter, but he believes the young driver isn’t blameless, and could’ve done a better job in dealing with an older, more experienced competitor.

“We saw Friesen walk up, we saw a little smirk on Sanchez’s face. First mistake. If you’re a young driver, don’t smirk to your elders. Take it. Listen to what they had to say. You can talk when they walk off. How many of us have gone to our bedrooms and slammed our doors when our parents screamed at us? I raised my hand. That’s okay. It’s good to do that. Be humble, but Sanchez was not. And he was in the right,” Petty added. “When the argument started, he was in the right. He held his position. He should have known — Friesen should have known he was on the outside. This is not how you handle your elders.

“At the same time, Friesen should have walked up and not been as confrontational at that point in time, because he has to take the load of the blame. And this is what happens. As an elder statesman, and as an experienced driver, a lot of times you know you made the mistake, but you want to put it on somebody else. And that’s what Stewart Friesen was trying to do. Pump it on Sanchez. Sanchez, with his little smirk, wasn’t gonna take it. He was in the right, but I don’t like the way he handled it. So what I’m trying to tell you is, if you’re a young driver, if you get into a confrontation with an older driver, and you will, and you will, be humble. Take it. Go to your room. Slam your door, and then shoot him the bird.”

Perhaps that’s how Nick Sanchez will handle confrontation from now on, but that’s certainly not what he did with Stewart Friesen last weekend. There’ll be no love between these two moving forward, and Kyle Petty and the rest of the NASCAR world will be watching whenever they’re near each other on the track.