Bubba Wallace was not happy with himself after he wrecked Kyle Larson and junked his car during the race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas on Sunday.
Wallace appeared to completely forget to hit the brakes coming into Turn 12 and slammed hard into Kyle Larson.
Following the contact with Larson, one could see he broke the toe link on his car and hobbled it back to pit road where he parked it for the rest of the race.
Interestingly, moments after Wallace took out Larson, Denny Hamlin appeared to spin out Larson in order to protect Wallace from possible any possible revenge.
Here’s a look from Hamlin’s in-car camera:
At the time, the announcers believed Larson wasn’t looking for revenge against Wallace, but rather was just trying to enter pit road.
The announcers would also later relay that Larson was indeed trying to enter pit road. However, even after the caution flag came out, Larson did not enter right away.
Larson and Wallace do have a contentious history to consider. During the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October of last year, Wallace drove his car into the wall during some hard racing with Larson. After contact with the wall, Wallace bounced into Larson, who dove to the bottom of the track to avoid Wallace, who then chased him down the track and purposely clipped his right rear quarter panel. The contact would send Larson spinning up the track into Christopher Bell and the outside wall.
Wallace would also spin up the track and smack the wall, nose first.
After taking out Larson and Bell, Wallace exited his car and slowly walked down to where Larson’s car had come to a stop. When Wallace arrived at Larson’s car, it appears he had some quick words with him before he began shoving him back into the car.
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Larson did not engage though and attempted to keep Wallace at bay while continuing to close in on him. Larson did eventually give a shove to keep Wallace from further closing in on him. However, Wallace continued to instigate and shove him.
Finally, a track official arrived on the scene and separated the two drivers. Wallace wound up being suspended for a whole race by NASCAR for his actions.
Once Wallace exited his vehicle at COTA, he spoke to Fox Sports’ pit reporter Jamie Little and explained that his day was ended due to the broken toe link as well as an oil line.
“Broke a toe link in the rear and then oil line. Just trying my hardest not to go down that slippery slope of self-doubt, right here,” Wallace said. “Two weeks in a row making rookie mistakes. Six years in the Cup. Need to be replaced.”
Wallace finished the day in 37th only ahead of Jimmie Johnson and Ty Dillon, who were involved in a Lap 1 wreck and were unable to continue.
Wallace’s 23XI Racing teammate, Tyler Reddick, dominated much of the race when he wasn’t behind the eight ball due to an early strategy call that was going to force him to have to pit an extra time due to fuel mileage.
