Following the driver’s shoving match with Kyle Larson on Sunday in Las Vegas, Bubba Wallace, and a NASCAR reporter had an unpleasant exchange. Larson rammed Wallace into the wall at Turn 4, and Wallace then descended onto the apron and twisted Larson around.
Christopher Bell was also in Larson’s car when it crashed. When Wallace raced over to Larson to confront him, the pushing and shoving began. Following their separation, NBC Sports‘ Marty Snider delivered a statement from Cliff Daniels, Larson’s crew chief, in which he accused Wallace of acting in retaliation.
“Cliff is intelligent enough to understand how quickly these cars break,” Wallace claimed that when you are purposefully shoved into a fence, as he was trying to do when forcing me to raise, the steering is lost. “The place just so happened to be. I detest it, especially for our team. As you could see, we were sort of dropping there since we lacked short-run speed. It was intended to be a three-wide dive bomb by Larson. I was never cleared.”
Kyle Larson hits Bubba Wallace.
Wallace spins him out, and #NASCARPlayoffs driver Christopher Bell is involved! pic.twitter.com/TlxcEV5T6q
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 16, 2022
Additionally, I don’t lift. I realize that running in the front is new for me, but I don’t lift, so He was not even in a position to lift, and he was not a lifter either, so we are now worthless.
“Bubba, is retaliation permissible when circumstances like these occur at this speed?” Snider asked.”
“Stop fishing, stop fishing,” Wallace retorted.
When Snider clarified that he wasn’t “fishing,” he asked Wallace what message he wanted to convey to Larson. Wallace responded, “He’s aware. He’s aware of the error of his actions. He never gave me any answers when he demanded to know what I was doing.” Larson agreed with Wallace’s assertions as well, adding Wallace “had cause to be angry.” Larson spoke with Snider after exiting the infield care facility and admitted, “I don’t think it would look good on his behalf because I wasn’t going to fight back. I’ve never come close to getting into a fight. I don’t like to fight.
"I don't lift."
Hear from @BubbaWallace after his incident with Kyle Larson. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/XUMPs2sRsf
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 16, 2022
