NASCAR suspends Bubba Wallace following post-wreck confrontation

NASCAR has suspended 23XI driver Bubba Wallace for one race after he spun reigning champion Kyle Larson and exited his car to confront him at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend. The moment escalated when Wallace shoved Larson multiple times on the infield of the track before walking away.

Wallace felt that Larson did not fully clear him before crowding him up the racetrack and into the wall and didn’t concede position — leading to Wallace going into the wall and bouncing back into Larson. Larson took the contact and drove off the track towards the inside, while Wallace’s car veered directly into his back side and spun both drivers out.

NASCAR stated that the infraction was ‘behavioral,’ which covers the full scope of his actions from an intentional spin, contact with officials and Larson before leaving the track.

Wallace becomes the first Cup Series driver to be suspended for an on-track incident since 2015. His one-week absence will put his team in an interesting spot given the absence of Kurt Busch – who suffered a concussion earlier this season – and a postseason car swap with rookie Ty Gibbs which promised to help 23XI compete in the team standings.

More on Bubba Wallace confrontation

After the incident, Kyle Larson’s crew chief said “if that wasn’t retaliation, I don’t know what was,” in regards to Bubba Wallace veering across the track and into Larson’s bumper. Multiple NASCAR analysts and fans took to social media to claim that Wallace deliberately wrecked Larson in retaliation for the aggressive driving — something that Wallace immediately called false in an interview afterwards.

“Cliff [Larson’s crew chief] is smart enough to know how easy these cars break. When you get shoved in the fence, deliberately like he did, trying to force me to lift — steering was gone. Just so happened to be there,” said Wallace.

According to Wallace the move was not a deliberate one by him, although Larson’s was deliberate to start it all. Wallace claims his car lost steering which led to him rushing across the track into him.