Bubba Wallace made for some interesting after-race action when he bumped into Alex Bowman in the cool-down lap at Chicago. The show of aggression was in retaliation for the race winner spinning him in an earlier part of the race before the rain delay. With the NASCAR community divided over the validity of Wallace’s move, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has come out in support of him.
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The racing icon said on his podcast, Dale Jr. Download, that drivers need to have the freedom to display their emotions from behind the wheel. He narrated two separate incidents, one involving himself and Tony Stewart, and another involving himself, Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin to make his case. The bottom line of his stories was that making retaliation contact – to a certain degree – should be fine.
He said, “Drivers need to be able to do those things, right or wrong. I’m not saying they’re the right choices. I’m not saying it’s what the driver should do. But the drivers need to be able to have a little bit of a jab or two. Or some flexibility.” Continuing, he reiterated that the drivers wouldn’t mind fines of a few grand for their actions as long as points weren’t being taken away.
Moreover, he believes that imposing extreme penalties for such scenarios is detrimental to the nature of racing. He added, “Don’t truly deter this cuz this is what racing is about. There is a line where it’s too egregious, too aggressive, too dangerous and you got to know as a driver where that’s at and not to cross it. But these types of things for me are kind of in our DNA.”
Does Bowman take Wallace’s action in the same spirit as Dale Jr.?
Bowman took complete responsibility for spinning Wallace in his post-race interviews. He was unable to get his windshield wipers working when the rain came down and missed his braking line as a result. This locked his tires up and he went careening straight into Wallace’s Toyota.
His words to NBC Sports went, “I’m pretty hard on myself when I make mistakes like that and I’ve been embarrassed about it since it happened. The rain delay was a lot of me just sitting there being embarrassed and being mad at myself. He has every right to be mad.” He also made it clear that he did not want Wallace to be penalized for bumping him back after the race.
