Did Tony Stewart Break the Rick James Rule?

By Spencer Hall
Tony Stewart either slapped or punched Kurt Busch following an on-track crash and subsequent bump incident at the Bud Shoot-out this past weekend. The details are vague, but the facts matter here: To punch a man in one thing; to slap him, according to what we’ll call the Rick James Principle, is another entirely.
First, see Fox’s excellent summary of the entire incident. Fox’s NASCAR coverage may be their finest achievement as broadcasters: How they make turn-left NASCAR gripping is a matter of TV sorcery on their part, but they actually make it better than paying for a seat at the track, and you don’t even have to smell like burned rubber afterwards.
(Unless you want to burn a tire in your living room while watching, which is certainly your business if you do.)

If Stewart punched him, then clearly this is a fight between two men who consider themselves equals. You have to hate someone a great deal to risk breaking knuckles, and there’s a certain level of respect paid in despising someone that much.
Now, if Stewart slapped him, then it’s on like Tron between the two. Slapping is disrespect written with the open palm of the hand. See Charlie Murphy’s quote on slapping from the “Rick James” episode of Chappelle’s Show for all you need to know about the ethics of slapping:
“First of all, you don’t slap a man. OK? I mean, even when slapping was fashionable, ya know, they did it in Paris, some guy would come up, ‘I challenge you to a duel.’ They would have a gunfight after that, somebody had to go!”
If Stewart broke the Rick James Rule and slapped another grown man, then NASCAR fans may look forward to some Hatfield/McCoy type tusslin’ on the track between these two later this season. And then somebody will indeed have to go, no matter how nice they sound now after getting the riot act read to them by NASCAR officials, either by race-by-race suspensions or worse.↵