Bubba Wallace denies rumor of fight with Aric Almirola

This season Aric Almirola had a NASCAR Xfinity seat with Joe Gibbs Racing, but a controversy with Bubba Wallace put him on suspension. It appears that the two drivers got into a physical altercation during the month of May.

Aric Almirola has raced three times in the No. 20 car for JGR. He won at Martinsville and finished runner-up at Richmond with a P5 finish at Darlington. After the All-Star Race, Almirola was pulled out of the Charlotte race and replaced with Ty Gibbs.

Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports reports that Bubba Wallace denied there was an altercation when asked. “Who said that?” the 23XI Racing driver replied to the question.

“No, we’ve had our disagreements before, but damn, that’s crazy,” Wallace said when pushed on the matter.

Almirola is expected back in the No. 20 for the Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The incident, according to the original report from The Athletic, began during a competition meeting. Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing share information and also have meetings together. JGR viewed Almirola as the instigator and issued him a suspension for his actions.

What led to all of this? We may never know. But there is a little bit of context that we can look to and try to piece something together.

Bubba Wallace, Aric Almirola have history

Aric Almirola and Bubba Wallace don’t strike me as rivals. The two raced against each other for a number of years and many times were running in or around the same place on the track on a weekly basis. So, they have had their run-ins over the years.

However, if you remember a year ago at Charlotte, Almirola and Wallace got into a shoving match under a rain delay. Perhaps with the memories of that race in mind, things got a bit heated during the competition meeting.

At the time, Wallace said it was just “frustration” for racing hard in the Coke 600. Almirola said Wallace gave him the middle finger and things escalated when he went to talk to Wallace about it.

Perhaps the topic came up leading up to the weekend of Charlotte. That would be my best guess. Joe Gibbs Racing felt it was a severe enough violation that he had to sit out at least one race, if not more. Christopher Bell was most recently in the No. 20 car at New Hampshire.

Bubba Wallace says it didn’t happen, but the reports have multiple sources tied to them. With Aric Almirola back in the 20 Xfinity Series car at Indy, will we see more fireworks between him and Wallace? I doubt it after a lengthy suspension. But we will have to wait and see.