Bubba Wallace Stewed All Week Over Kansas Loss and Denny Hamlin Move

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Bob Pockrass

FOX Motorsports Insider

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CONCORD, N.C. — Bubba Wallace stewed all week over last Sunday’s finish at Kansas Speedway until he got to talk to Denny Hamlin about two hours before practice Saturday.

Hamlin — Wallace’s boss as co-owner of 23XI Racing while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing — drifted into Wallace as they battled for the lead in the final turns at Kansas. The move resulted in Wallace hitting the wall and finishing fifth. Hamlin finished second, and Chase Elliott won the event.

Wallace said that “95 percent” of the drivers felt that was an “oof” move by Hamlin, who was struggling with power steering issues. 

“I don’t fault Denny Hamlin for racing for win, racing for his team and his sponsors,” Wallace said Saturday on the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course. “I get the question a lot — what’s it like racing Denny on the race track?

“No offense to them, but I could give two sh–s, because he’s a competitor, and he has labeled it that way. And so that was two competitors going for a win, and so as much as it didn’t work out, I have to respect that.”

Denny Hamlin with Bubba Wallace in victory lane after after Martinsville. <!–>

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The victory likely cost Wallace a shot at the championship, putting him in a deep hole going into the elimination race Sunday. A win at Kansas would have automatically advanced Wallace into the next round.

Wallace said he can’t relate to the dynamic Hamlin faces racing for one organization and owning another three-car team.

“I’m sure it’s a difficult thing [for Hamlin] to juggle. It’s really good if I get 60 wins, and it’s really good that I advance myself in playoffs,” Wallace said. “But, man, it’s also really good if the car that I own gets locked into the next round and a lot of money on the line. There’s a lot of layers to all of that.

“I would assume you don’t think about that in the moment you’re going for a win, and you do what you’ve got to do. That’s what we’ve always done since we were kids, since we started out. And you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to win races, some respectful more than others.”

Wallace called it “a somber week” as he listened to Hamlin talk about not apologizing for going for the win on his podcast. Hamlin often participates in fewer 23XI Racing meetings during the playoffs while focusing on his JGR ride.

“I hate it got to this point, the lingering effect, but Denny and I just talked 30 minutes ago,” Wallace said early Saturday afternoon. “And it was a good heart-to-heart. 

“The conversation came from a place of peace. It went better than I thought it would.”

Wallace insisted he wasn’t mad about getting put in the fence going for the win as much as Toyota was in control of the race with the top-five drivers in line entering the final restart and Elliott, in a Chevrolet, won.

“I just told Chase [that] we alley-ooped that for him,” Wallace said. “He appreciated it. That’s what it was.

Can Bubba Wallace bounce back at Charlotte after last week’s incident at Kansas? <!–>

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Before the contact with Hamlin, Wallace had contact with JGR driver Christopher Bell, where Bell also got into the fence. Wallace said he apologized to Bell, saying, “My full intentions were to make you lift, not to put you in the fence, and I apologize for that.”

Bell said he wasn’t going to lift as they were battling for position.

“I would have liked to have … at least get both of us to the start-finish line, clearly taking one driver out of it, the whole accumulation of the Toyota group epicly failed at Kansas,” Bell said.

“There’s nothing I could have done differently besides just give up the spot, and obviously you’re not going to do that. It is what it is.”

Wallace said the difference between the two moves was the location that it happened, that Bell could still “see the corner.”

“I didn’t get a chance to see the rest of the corner, and that sucks,” said Wallace, later adding. “’[He could have decided to] turn left and go for the bottom. Simple as that.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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