Bubba Wallace reacts to Kyle Larson incident from Darlington: 'It is what it is'

Last week at Darlington, the big end of the race controversy was between Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson as the two got into one another. This week, the 23XI Racing driver is talking about what happened at the end of the NASCAR race.

I mean, we’ve all seen the video at this point. Kyle Larson admitted at the time that he had made a mistake. But now we officially have Bubba Wallace’s side.

Larson, 160+ laps down at the time, was racing with Wallace, a lap down. Tyler Reddick had just lost the lead to Ryan Blaney and hit the wall a little bit. That happened just as Larson made pass on Wallace, and the 5 checked up immediately.

“Yeah, that was, it was unforutnate to be in that scenario,” Bubba Wallace told Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “I seen the 45, slow. Then as I turned back down the hill, I couldn’t see him anymore. I just figured he was going to stay slow down the backstretch and finish second or whatever. Then Larson stops. So, I was like, ‘Oh did something else happen that I didn’t see within that half a second?’ It didn’t. He just, I don’t know, panicked or just giving courtesy room, but I was so close, I couldn’t react fast enough. So, it was unfortunate for all parties involved. It is what it is.”

This is just one of those things. Larson had a damaged race car and was a million laps down. I’m not sure why he was passing Bubba with four laps to go. He lost the regular season championship by one point a year ago, but Larson had no chance, outside of a fastest lap award, to earn another point last Sunday.

Bristol is another opportunity for both of these drivers. Neither of them was happy with their Darlington performance. They will try to rebound on the high banks.

Bubba Wallace has improved at Bristol

In his early Cup Series career, Bubba Wallace was not good at Bristol. Like, at all. He had a couple of bright moments there with Richard Petty Motorsports. P10 in 2020 was his best performance ever at the track until last fall.

In the playoffs last year, Bubba was great. Not so much in the tire management race that played out in the spring. This year, will it matter which track and style of racing that Bristol gives these drivers? I’d argue it will.

In his last three trips to Bristol, Wallace has qualified P9, P9, and P11. That P11 qualifying effort turned into a P3 performance overall at the end of the race. Wallace picked up stage points and had himself a career day at the Last Great Colosseum.

Right now, the Bristol track is acting like last spring. But warmer temperatures tomorrow could make it more like the summer. It’s hard to tell right now, but Bubba Wallace and the rest of the Cup Series will find out when the green flag drops on Sunday.