Former NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton recalled the fight between Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch in a night race at Daytona International Speedway. He said that Stewart caught Busch with a left-hand swing before he separated the two drivers.Pemberton shared the story on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, hosted by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. He recalled being alongside then-NASCAR President Mike Helton when the altercation occurred, believed to have taken place during the 2008 season. The incident was never widely documented and lingered mostly as a rumor.Recalling the altercation, Robin Pemberton said, via Dirty Mo Media on X:“We're in there (hauler). Mike says, ‘Okay, you guard Tony, and I'll take Kurt.’ They come in, and they're sitting and they're talking, and they're not getting very far with the conversation.”“They're starting to lean up the seat, and they stand up, so I stand and get up, I got Tony behind me, and I'm kind of keeping them away. Mike's got Kurt up here just a little bit. Tony comes across with a left hand and just drills him.”Pemberton then remembered calling out Mike Helton for not telling him about Stewart being left-handed, adding:“We said, ‘Well, we're not getting anywhere. We're going to talk about this,’ whatever, whatever. So they walk out, and I turn to Mike, I said, ‘You didn't tell me Tony was left-handed. I'm blocking him like he's right-handed.’ He said, ‘Hell, I didn't know.’”Today, both Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch are retired from NASCAR. The former concluded his career with three championships, two with Joe Gibbs Racing and another with the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing team. He also won 49 races, 15 more than Busch, who also won a title in 2004.“It's a tough decision”: Tony Stewart on decision to close his NASCAR race team in 2024After the 2024 NASCAR season, Tony Stewart stepped away from the sport as a team owner. He admitted that the choice wasn’t easy, but said shifting priorities and the changing nature of NASCAR ultimately influenced his decision.In an interview on the Happy Hour podcast with Kevin Harvick, his former driver at SHR, Stewart said:“It's a tough decision, but things in life change, your priorities change, and variables outside of your control change as well. You and I have been around for a long time, it [NASCAR] is not what it used to be.”One of the factors that led to his decision to leave was the ongoing legal dispute between NASCAR, 23XI Racing, and Front Row Motorsports. Tony Stewart explained that it wasn't the direction of the sport he saw himself being a part of.The now 54-year-old is racing in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), a drag racing series with 11,000-horsepower machines. He won the Rookie of the Year award in the Top Fuel class last year and is competing for the championship.Stewart also started a family with fellow racecar driver, Leah Pruett. The couple welcomed their firstborn son, named Dominic James, in November 2024.