NASCAR announces penalties following weekend races in Chicago

NASCAR has released its penalty report following the weekend at Chicago, which hosted the Grant Park 165 in the Cup Series, among other events. There were a handful of potential penalties, though all eyes were on potential disciplinary measures for Bubba Wallace.

NASCAR fined Wallace $50,000 for dooring Alex Bowman during the cool-down lap following the conclusion to the race, per Jeff Gluck of The Athletic. Chase Elliott did not receive any punishment from NASCAR for his run-in with Daniel Suarez on the cool-down lap.

Bubba Wallace incident with Alex Bowman draws scrutiny

The most high-profile incident from the weekend came in the moments just after the race concluded, during a cool-down lap for the Grant Park 165.

After getting himself alongside the winner, Alex Bowman, Wallace smashed his car into Bowman’s and sent him into the hard wall barrier. His bump came just after Bowman had unhooked his window netting and raised his visor to wipe some sweat from his brow, jarring Bowman and leaving him stunned.

There had been prior history between the two during the race, of course. Bowman had previously spun Wallace and caused him to lose a ton of track positioning, effectively ruining his day.

For that, Bowman apologized after the race.

“I’d be mad, too. I ruined his day,” Bowman said. “I just messed up. I’ve been embarrassed about it since it happened. I tried to call him during the rain delay and I shot him a text.”

Bowman even advocated for NASCAR not to penalize Wallace as a result of the dooring post-race.

“He barely hit me, everything was fine and it was plenty deserved,” Bowman said.

Of course, NASCAR has to take into account multiple factors when meting out discipline, and it took such actions on Wednesday. Now both drivers can hopefully put the incident behind them.