Denny Hamlin: 23XI likely won't appeal Bubba Wallace penalty from NASCAR
According to Denny Hamlin, 23XI Racing will not appeal the penalty to Bubba Wallace from his incident with Alex Bowman at Chicago. Wallace was fined $50k by NASCAR for postrace contact with Bowman on the streets of Chicago.
Bubba Wallace has been in the news all week after the incident. He doored Bowman on the cooldown lap. The 48 car was near a wall and Bowman had his window net down, possibly had his belts loosened.
The 23XI Racing co-owner does not believe that the fine will be appealed.
“All in all it’s a judgment call and that’s kind of the explanation that they gave the team that it’s you know, it’s a judgment call,” Hamlin told the media at Pocono, via Claire B Lang.
“More than likely, we’ve seen these things happen in other sports where, when the camera’s on you live, right, it’s not something that got cut away to and said ‘Oh yeah by the way this happened after the checkered.’ I think it just being live right there and everyone seeing it probably caused a little bit more of a social media uproar which they then responded to that. So, I think from the team’s standpoint I don’t believe there will be any appeals or anything like that. I think it’s just a learning moment that you try not to repeat.”
This is probably the right call from 23XI Racing. I don’t think it would be worth it to appeal this. It is fairly cut and dry, and it would only serve as a distraction at this point. Bubba Wallace is best served moving on and focusing on the final races of the regular season.
While he is in must-win territory, the NASCAR Playoffs are still in play for the 23 team.
Bubba Wallace has chances, he has to capitalize
With races at Pocono, Michigan, Daytona, and Darlington left on the schedule ahead of the postseason, Bubba Wallace has opportunities. However, he has to make the most of them. I would argue that he has not done that in the second half of the season.
Wallace was able to point his way into the postseason last year. So far this year, he is outside of the playoffs and has little to no chance of pointing his way in. However, a checkered flag would change all of that.
Hamlin knows a thing or two about these fines. He’s been on the receiving end of a few penalties and fines in the past. At times an appeal works, and then there are times when it is pointless.
Bubba Wallace is going to pay that $50,000 fine. If he picks up a win soon, then that won’t seem like such a big deal.