NASCAR penalized Bubba Wallace for reckless driving after he retaliated against Austin Dillon while under caution.
Bubba Wallace via NASCAR YouTube
According to NASCAR’s Infraction Sheet for the Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum, Wallace was sent to the tail of the field on lap 143 for reckless driving.
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The infraction occurred after Dillon dumped Wallace with less than 10 laps to go. However, before Dillon dumped Wallace he had actually drove underneath him and passed him.
Upon getting passed, Wallace put his bumper to Dillon’s car sending him up the track and opening up the inside.
Bubba Wallace via Motorsports on NBC YouTube
Wallace would try and push Dillon up the track, but Dillon wasn’t going to let that happen as he responded by driving his car down on Wallace through the straightaway. The two were eventually joined by Alex Bowman and went three-wide into the corner.
Wallace eventually completed the pass, but Dillon gave him a taste of his own medicine and sent him spinning with 7 laps to go.
The spin would draw out the caution. As Wallace attempted to rejoin the field he waited for Dillon to pass underneath him.
When Dillon got below him, Wallace decided to rough him up slamming into the side of his right front.
Following the race, Wallace spoke to FOX: NASCAR’s Bob Pockrass about the run-in with Dillon saying, ”
We were really good at the first half of the race, obviously, and then all those cautions.”
“I couldn’t tell if I was letting it get too cold or letting it get too hot, and then once I fell back to fourth I realized I was letting everything get too cold. And so I was kicking myself for that. But quickly adjusted and got back going and the 3 just never tried to make a corner, he’s just always running into my left rear.”
He added, “It is what it is. I got run into the fence by him down the straightaway on that restart so I gave him a shot and then we got dumped.”
“Y’all are looking for something but I ain’t gonna give you nothing,” he concluded.
Bubba Wallace talks about the contact with Austin Dillon as well as his own pass of Denny Hamlin. pic.twitter.com/LQEx5YmSdI
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) February 6, 2023
Dillon also addressed the contact following the race saying, “I hate it for Bubba; he had a good car and a good run. But you can’t tell who’s either pushing him or getting pushed, I just know he sent me through the corner and I saved it three times through there, released the brake and all kinds of stuff, and then when I got down, I was going to give the same. Probably was a little too hard.”
RELATED: NASCAR Suspends Bubba Wallace After Intentionally Wrecking Kyle Larson
Wallace was previously suspended for a race last year after he intentionally wrecked Bubba Wallace at Las Vegas.
At the time NASCAR issued the suspension Kyle Petty shared his opinion that it wasn’t enough. He called for Wallace to get suspended for the rest of the season and also opined that he didn’t believe Wallace’s apology.
Petty said, “He should have been suspended for the rest of the year. Rest of the year.”
Petty also said, “First, you intentionally wreck somebody. That’s a suspension,” he asserted. “He’s walking across the racetrack and cars are going by him on both sides. That’s not safe. That should be another suspension. Physically confronts a driver. Shoves him. That’s a physical confrontation. If I do that on the sidewalk I’m in handcuffs somewhere, okay?”
“So he physically confronts this driver, shoves an official, doesn’t get in an ambulance, walks back to the pits, and then stands and bold faced tells a fib — I’m being nice — to my man here, Marty Snider, who did a great job in your interview, I will give you that,” he said.
“So the lesson should be the rest of the year, just the rest of the year. That’s just me, okay? My man Matt Kenseth, who didn’t speak to me for almost a year after his accident with Joey Logano, got two races. So you can turn a guy, right side, driver side into the wall at 180 mph and you get one,” Petty compared.
Kyle Petty via Motorsports on NBC YouTube
Regarding Wallace’s apology, Petty said, “His PR people sent out an apology, okay? And they should win a Pulitzer prize for it because it is so full of you know what. That there’s no way. This is unbelievable. It just is.”
“Until I see what Bubba has to say and see if there’s some contrition, if there’s some, you know, ‘I’m sorry, this should have never happened,’ but we have yet to hear from the man. We have yet to hear from the man. You see a piece of paper with writing on it. That’s all I see. I don’t see anything. Sack up and come apologize.
“I hate to say that, but in an incident like this there needs to be more than just a written not here with that origami logo on the bottom of it. He needs to say something,” Petty asserted.
Kyle Petty via Motorsports on NBC YouTube
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NEXT: Kenny Wallace Says NASCAR Should Never Do The Busch Clash At The L.A. Coliseum Ever Again