Several drivers that were hoping to win Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona to make their way into the playoffs saw their night and playoff hopes come to an early and abrupt end.
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In what is typical Daytona pack racing, Bubba Wallace was sent flying after contact with Kyle Busch and Joey Logano triggered a major pileup that included Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric, Zane Smith, Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Bowman, Stenhouse, and Hocevar were all hoping to race their way into the playoffs with a win, but all wound up being eliminated. Bowman and Chris Buescher came into the race as the most likely to potentially make the playoffs if a winless driver didn’t get to the finish line first, much like Austin Dillon did last week at Richmond.
NBC analyst and former Cup crew chief Steve Letarte put the blame for causing the wreck solely on Wallace. “I don’t think Bubba knows he’s three wide top because of where he is on the racetrack,” Letarte said.
“He starts moving left and then Kyle (Busch) and Logano get together, and Logano has nowhere to do. He’s out of the gas and that’s it. The #23 comes across the nose of the #22. I’m just not sure the #23 of Bubba Wallace has any idea there are two cars below him while being in the middle of the racetrack.”
Added fellow NBC analyst and former Cup driver Jeff Burton, “Of course, it’s at the front of the pack. So now all of these guys that had nothing to do with the wreck whatsoever, they come piling into it with nowhere to go.”
Wallace gives his point of view
Not surprisingly, Wallace saw things a bit differently. “That’s so hard to see,” he said. “I need to get another look at it. It looks like I was three-wide and the #5 (Kyle Larson) hit me and got me down there and it is what it is.
“I hate it, hate that we tore up a bunch of cars. So, I think I looked and it was blame Bubba Wallace national day today. So, I’ll take the blame for it.”
Wallace, who is already locked into a playoff berth by virtue of his win in the Brickyard 400, felt that because it was so early in the race that drivers wouldn’t be out of line, so to speak.
“I didn’t think the aggression level was too high at that point,” Wallace added. “I thought everyone was playing nice and just kind of, I guess premature there, just unexpectedly. So, I hate it.
‘Our Columbia Toyota Camry was so fast. We got up to the lead fairly quick and so appreciate everybody’s hard work. I just hate that it ended that way for sure because it’s still early but it was setting up to be a good day…
“It all kind of just came together, so it was very unexpected. The #12 (Ryan Blaney) moved up and the #22 (Logano) was trying to, not really bully his way up to just take the line away. So I kind of held my ground and next thing you know, we were three wide and so. Oh well.”
