As a result of a crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that also collected title contender Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace attempted to fight reigning NASCAR champion Kyle Larson.
In the third round of the playoffs, Wallace had led 29 laps and clearly had a fast car. Wallace did not qualify, and Larson was eliminated last week.
As Larson attempted a three-wide pass – Kevin Harvick dropped out of the bunch – he slid up the track against Wallace. When Wallace did not lift, Larson used his Chevrolet to push Wallace’s Toyota into the wall.
As Wallace bounced down the track, he followed Larson’s car down to the apron and appeared to intentionally hook him in retaliation. In that turn, Larson spun into the path of Bell, who won Charlotte last Sunday and earned an automatic spot in the round of eight, causing Bell to lose.
When Wallace climbed out of his car and marched toward Larson, he began screaming and shoving him as soon as he reached him. Although Larson tried to turn away from Wallace and lift his arms several times to block his shoves, Wallace succeeded in shooting the smaller driver multiple times before a NASCAR safety worker separated them.
There is no admission of fault from Wallace
While Wallace claimed he didn’t purposefully wreck Larson, both Larson and Bell saw it as retaliation. NASCAR could penalize Wallace if it also believes Wallace deliberately retaliated.
As Wallace pointed out, “when you get pushed into the fence deliberately like he did trying to force me to lift, the steering is gone. Larson wanted to make a three-wide divebomb, but he never cleared me and I didn’t lift.”
As new to running up front as I am, I don’t lift. I wasn’t even at a spot to lift, and he never lifted, either, and now we’re junk. Just a bad execution on his part.
Wallace replied, “He knows what I was trying to convey.” to Larson when asked what message he was sending.
“He knows what he did was wrong. He tried to question what I was doing, but he never cleared me.” Wallace said.
Wallace hooked Larson, who hit the wall last week at Charlotte, contributing to his playoff elimination.
After (turn) three, Larson said, “I got in low, got loose, and chased it a bit up.” He got to my right front, which got him tight and into the wall. I knew he would retaliate. His race was not over until he retaliated, but he had a reason to be mad.
It was just aggression turned into frustration, and he retaliated.”
As NASCAR’s Next Gen car has been under a great deal of scrutiny, Wallace’s crash of Larson seemed inappropriate. The Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman is out for the third straight race with a concussion, and Kurt Busch has had to withdraw after his concussion in July.
