Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains why Alex Bowman stumped hard for NASCAR to not penalize Bubba Wallace

Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows why Alex Bowman did not want NASCAR to punish Bubba Wallace for hitting him at the end of the Chicago Street Race. In the latest episode of Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt said Bowman was making sure that Wallace didn’t go after him when they take the track next weekend.

“Bowman gets into Bubba in Turn 2, just goes in there locks off four tires up, cleans out Bubba,” Earnhardt said. “He admitted to it, he said as much multiple times during the rain delay and in victory lane. All his post-race he’s saying, ‘Hey, I know Bubba’s mad, he ought to be mad, don’t penalize him. He hit me after the race, he should have, I deserved it,’ doing everything he can to not only keep Bubba out of any kind of trouble but also he wants to not get ran over by Bubba in the next race.

Unfortunately for Bowman, Wallace was penalized by NASCAR as he was fined $50,000 for the incident. Wallace did avoid a points penalty, which is big considering he’s on the outside looking in when it comes to the Cup Series playoffs.

Alex Bowman is ‘mad at himself for hitting Bubba Wallace

After the Chicago Street Race, Bowman talked about ruining Wallace’s day. “Bubba and I, we had our deal a long time ago, but even today we raced the hell out of each other, but we gave each other a lot of space, and it was really fun racing with him, and we’ve raced each other super fair and super clean, and I just messed up and ruined his day, so I hate that,” Bowman said.

Bowman also talked about the mistake he made when he hit Wallace. “I’m pretty hard on myself when I make mistakes like that, and I’ve been embarrassed about it since it happened,” he said. “The rain delay was just a lot of me sitting there being embarrassed and being mad at myself. He has every right to be mad; I’d be mad, too. I tried to call him during the rain delay and I shot him a text. Nothing I can do to make it better, and I’m sure us winning probably only makes it worse.”

Bowman won the Chicago Street Race, his first victory in 80 races. Wallace, who earned a P13 finish on Sunday, is still looking for his first win of the season.