Bubba Wallace was fined today as a result of his post-race incident with race winner Alex Bowman. NASCAR did not issue a points penalty. Instead, they handed Wallace a $50,000 fine. Furthermore, NASCAR did not order any sort of anger management for the 23XI Racing driver.
Bubba Wallace has somewhat of a history in this arena. The biggest example of losing his temper in recent years was the incident with Kyle Larson at Las Vegas. NASCAR actually handed Bubba Wallace a one-race suspension for this on-track incident. On that day back in 2022, Wallace took offense at how Larson had raced him, so he took a left turn down the frontstretch and right hooked Larson’s car at full speed. The incident was so egregious that Kyle Petty called for Wallace to be parked for the rest of the season.
While this particular incident was nowhere near the level of violence of the Larson incident, there was still plenty of danger involved. First, both Wallace and Bowman had their window nets down. Second, the incident occurred on the cool down lap and involved the race winner. Bowman could have had his hand out the window waving to fans on this street course. This could have led to serious injury when Wallace used his #23 Toyota Camry to knock Bowman’s #48 Chevy Camaro into the wall.
Slap on the Wrist or Some BS?
Bubba Wallace is somewhat of a polarizing figure in NASCAR. The fan response to NASCAR’s fine has a wide range of opinions. Many fans see this fine as “slap on the wrist.” Still other fans see this fine as “some BS.” If you’re a casual fan and you watched the incident on television, you might assume that it was barely an incident. If you’re a longtime hardcore fan, you know that the biggest problem with this is the safety concern that window nets were down.
I understand why Bubba Wallace fans might be upset by this fine. My favorite NASCAR driver of all time is Kevin Harvick. Early in his career he got into a lot of situations like this. He also got a lot of fines and penalties during this time as well. Each and every time such a penalty was levied, I thought it was overdone.
On the other hand, a fine on its own isn’t going to be enough to grab a driver’s attention. Bubba Wallace, much like Kevin Harvick early in his career, has become something of a repeat offender.
Repeat Offender
Unfortunately, Bubba Wallace seems to be NASCAR’s current repeat offender. Carson Hocevar might be in the running for that honor as well, to be fair. Though the points penalty given to Hocevar in addition to a fine, may have gotten his attention. I bring up Carson Hocevar not to compare specific incidents, but rather to look at a similar pattern of behavior.
Bubba Wallace seems to let his anger get the best of him. Wallace even has a history with Bowman. A few years ago, Wallace was rightfully upset with Bowman and threw some water on him after the race, as seen in the video directly above. This isn’t such a big issue, in my opinion. Wallace had a lot less pressure to perform on him back when he was driving the #43 for Petty Motorsports. As the pressure to perform has increased, so has his inappropriate and sometimes dangerous responses to on-track incidents.
Obviously, the most egregious example of Bubba Wallace letting his anger get the best of him was the incident with Larson at Las Vegas, which I mentioned earlier. In the above video, you can watch both their interviews and the incident. This was by far Wallace’s most dangerous action on track. Earlier in this season, there was apparently some type of altercation between Bubba Wallace and Aric Almirola that went on behind closed doors and Joe Gibbs Racing handled it by suspending Almirola. Almirola is another driver with which Bubba Wallace has a history.
NASCAR will not alter Behavior with a Fine
I definitely understand that NASCAR doesn’t want to hit Wallace with a points penalty. Bubba Wallace is on the edge of making the playoffs. A points penalty would definitely make that a much tougher battle for him. I often complain about NASCAR micro-managing their sport. Therefore, on the one hand, I have to give a thumbs up to NASCAR for once trying to step back.
On the other hand, I feel like Bubba Wallace could have handled his anger in a much safer fashion. On track retaliation during the race with safety equipment in place would have made more sense, as long as it’s not a right rear hook going down the straightaway. If Bubba Wallace had bumped Alex Bowman out of the way in another race down the road, we wouldn’t even be talking about a fine.
Instead, Bubba Wallace, who had an entire rain delay to collect himself after being spun by Bowman earlier in the race, used his car to hit Bowman during the cool down lap when both drivers had their window nets down. Due to the safety concern here and his repeat offenses, I feel like NASCAR could have done a lot more with this penalty. A points penalty would have definitely gotten his attention. Yet, they could have also hit him with a fine, placed him on probation for the rest of the year, and ordered him to take some type of anger management. NASCAR hands out sensitivity training all the time. They should have at least ordered Wallace to complete anger management in addition to the fine. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
