Bubba Wallace broke down his meeting with NASCAR after last week’s Atlanta penalty dropped him from a podium spot to the last car on the lead lap. The Alabama native admitted to his faults, but shared some blame with Ty Gibbs.
Wallace was left with a 29th-place finish after he dropped below the yellow line on the final lap. He was fighting for the lead and ultimately got pushed to second place by the No.54 Toyota.
After the penalty, however, Christopher Bell and Carson Hocevar inherited the podium spots, while Wallace’s team contested the ruling. The 23XI driver shed light on their NASCAR meeting, saying,
“We’ve got a better understanding of the rule. To me, I always thought it was like gaining position. But no, it’s gaining track position, which I totally did. So it is what it is.”
“At the end of the day, if the 54 didn’t push me at the line, I would have finished third, and I’m pretty sure they said that wouldn’t have been a penalty, so it’s like, I don’t know. I think NASCAR doesn’t ever want to be put into a situation where they have to make the call, and they always tell us to not put them in that situation.And unfortunately, I put them there. So all in all, rule’s a rule, crossed over the line, oh well,” he said via On3.
Bubba Wallace has two podium finishes this season. He finished third at Michigan and later second at San Diego. The road course result remains his best result in 20 starts.
In contrast, his teammate, Tyler Reddick, has five wins to his name and has already clinched a Chase spot.
Ty Gibbs absolves himself from Bubba Wallace’s penalty
Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace had a contentious back-and-forth after Atlanta. Gibbs shared that he refused to apologise and placed the onus on Wallace.
He believes the No.23 driver cleared himself from contention.
“It seems like it didn’t really work out for him, but I was just trying to help him at the end by pushing him to the win,” Gibbs remarked.
