Bubba Wallace attempted to fight defending NASCAR champion Kyle Larson following a Sunday crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that also included title rival Christopher Bell.
Wallace led 29 laps and definitely had a quick car in the first race of the third round of playoffs. Wallace did not go to the playoffs, and Larson was eliminated last week.
Larson attempted a three-wide pass, but Kevin Harvick dropped out in the centre, and Larson slid up the track into Wallace. When Wallace refused to lift to make place for Larson, Larson pushed Wallace’s Toyota into the wall with his Chevrolet.
Wallace then bounced back down the track, following Larson’s car down to the apron and appearing to intentionally hook him in vengeance. Larson was sent spinning into the path of Bell, who won at Charlotte last Sunday to earn an automatic berth into the round of eight, and Bell’s race was over.
Wallace hopped out of his car and marched toward Larson. Wallace was shouting before he even reached Larson and began to shove the smaller driver. Larson attempted to turn away from him and raised his arms several times to prevent Wallace’s shoves, but Wallace fired multiple shots before a NASCAR safety staffer separated the two.
Wallace claimed he did not intentionally crash Larson, but both Larson and Bell saw it as blatant retaliation. NASCAR may sanction Wallace if it deems he actively reacted.
“I’m smart enough to know how easily these cars break, so when you get shoved into the fence deliberately like he did trying to force me to lift, the steering was gone,” says Wallace. “Larson intended to perform a three-wide divebomb, but he never cleared me, and I don’t lift.
“I am new to running up front, but I do not lift. I wasn’t even in a position to lift, and he never lifted either, so now we’re rubbish. Just a (very awful) execution decision.”
When asked what message he was trying to give Larson when he started shoving him, Wallace replied, “He knows.”
“He realizes what he did is bad. “He wanted to question what I was doing, and he never cleared me,” Wallace explained.
And what about Bell becoming collateral damage?
“Sports,” Wallace, who, like Bell, drives a Toyota, shrugged.
Larson, who slammed the wall in Charlotte last week, contributing to his playoff elimination, said he was not shocked Wallace caught him.
“I obviously made an aggressive move into (turn) three, got in low, got loose and chased it up a bit,” Larson informed the crowd. “He got to my right front, and that drew him in tight against the wall. I knew he would retaliate. He had a reason to be upset, but his race was not over until he retaliated.
“It’s what it is.” Just aggression led to irritation, and he retaliated.”
He thought Wallace’s incident with Larson was improper given as much scrutiny NASCAR has received for its new Next Gen car. Alex Bowman, Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, is out for the third race in a row due to a concussion, and Kurt Busch has been forced to withdraw after suffering a concussion in July.
“I think with everything that’s been going on here lately, with head injuries… I don’t think it’s probably the right thing to do,” Larson told the media. “I’m sure with everything going, he’ll know that he made a mistake in the retaliation part and I’m sure he’ll think twice about that next time.”
He also stated that he expected Wallace to be prepared to fight when he approached his crashed automobile.
“I saw him walking over, so I figured he would do something,” Larson recalled. “He had every reason to be outraged. I’d rather him fight than destroy our cars in a risky manner.”
Bell, who will finish 34th on Sunday and presumably fall to last in the eight-driver playoff rankings, said “we got the short end of the stick” when Larson and Wallace collided.
“It’s disappointing because our performance is capable of racing for the championship, and it doesn’t appear that we’re going to get to,” he told me.
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