Bubba Wallace denies wrongdoing at Martinsville after race manipulation penalty

Following hefty penalties to his team and others for race manipulation, Bubba Wallace is still denying any wrongdoing from last week’s race. NASCAR felt that Wallace, as well as Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain, attempted to manipulate the race.

Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell were both beside themselves last week when the talk began. NASCAR went and looked at video, SMT Data, and of course, radio communications.

Wallace doesn’t believe he did anything wrong. However, 23XI Racing chose not to appeal the penalties.

“We can all agree to disagree. Is what it is. We’re here at Phoenix,” Wallace said to the media, via Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports.

The 23XI Racing drive continued.

“No. But at the same time, our team is Tyler and the 45 group have worked their ass off to put themselves in a spot to go for a championship. So, for us to make the decision not to appeal, I didn’t agree with that, but I understood once they kind of broke it down. We have to have all of our eggs in the same basket and time invested in the right things and at the right time. And the right time is focusing on the championship and the 45 and bringing home 23XI their first championship.

“So, as soon as that was kind of communicated it was easy to kinda let your guard down and appreciate that fact and support the team decision. Because at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing, we’ll continue to go on to race and be competitive and do everything we can.”

Bubba Wallace answered a couple of more questions as well.

Bubba Wallace moving past ‘frustrating week’

Due to the race manipulation penalty, Wallace was fined $100,000 on top of a fine to the team of $100,000, his crew chief Bootie Barker was suspended for this week as well as competition director Dave Rogers. There was also a 50 point deduction for the driver’s and owner’s points.

Bubba Wallace was also asked at Phoenix about how he is going to race this week. If he feels any teammate help will be under more scrutiny this weekend.

“No,” the driver said. “I think you’re just in a spot where you race your ass off no matter where you’re at on the track. Simple as that.”

Again, Wallace denied any wrongdoing last week.

“No. Nope. So, we were just running our own race, started to bleed there really hard. I tried to hold off the 5 from getting to the next lap car and just burned my shit up. So, product of racing and the frustrating part is we show up in the spring and we have a car that’s capable of winning, and then we show back up in the fall and we’re nobody. Super frustrating, it’s been a frustrating week.”

We’ll see if Bubba Wallace can avoid any manipulation accusations this week. I suspect everyone will be on their best behavior.