Woke NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace is no stranger to landing himself in hot water, a place he found himself once again during a recent race at Talladega. Wallace was the head of the pack during the race, taking a commanding place ahead of the other drivers participating in the event until lap 115. Wallace was then bumped in the rear by fellow race car driver Ross Chastain.
At first glance, the bump didn’t appear significant. However, Wallace soon lost control of his vehicle, cut across several other cars and then slammed into the wall. The wreck soon involved all but four cars in the wreck, making it the biggest wreck in Talladega history. Fans immediately laid the blame on Wallace for the incident.
While it’s clear that it wasn’t his fault that Chastain bumped him, many are wondering if perhaps his team is at fault for having a car handling too loosely. Wallace’s team, however, is not accepting the full responsibility for what happened. After the crash, the team was heard on radio saying, “They wrecked us.” Wallace, however, did take the blame for the wreck.
Despite fans wanting to blame Wallace, a man who has become widely unpopular amongst the more conservative-leaning NASCAR enthusiasts, other drivers who participated in the race say the fault lies with the NextGen cars. Joey Logano, a NASCAR veteran, shared his thoughts on the massive pile-up following the conclusion of the race.
“Pick your poison. What do you want with this car? You want to save fuel, or do you want to wreck? It seems like those are the two options right now,” Logano said, according to Breitbart News. A total of 26 cars were involved in the accident. While it’s not the biggest wreck in NASCAR history, it certainly lands high in the ranks.
Wallace did an interview with FOX Sports not long after the wreck occurred, saying, “Damn. Nothing to show for in the first stage,” Wallace said. “Obviously, just trying to figure out the strategies stuff. Man, just hate it. Hate it for Xfinity, hate it for our team. Don’t want to have any DNFs; we have two now, so it’s a bummer. We got to figure out how to be pushed better, so I take responsibility on that.”
“We’ll have a good debrief and figure out what we can do to make our Toyotas a little bit better being pushed, and maybe not have that happen. But appreciate Xfinity, we’ll go on to ole Texas and have some fun,” Wallace added. One of the drivers in the race, Blaney, who was involved in the wreck, said, “With the wreck, I feel like we all got pin-balling off each other a little bit. From what I’ve seen, we’re all bumping and bumping, and they were unstable.”
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“It turned Bubba to the top and the outside lane was there and he got clipped. Just one of those things. It closed tight quick and we all got pin-balling, and we’ve seen that so many times. You’re trying to lift and check, and next thing you know, everybody wrecks. Unfortunate, I hate that we were in the middle of it. I don’t really know if there’s anyone to blame, we all just started bouncing off each other,” he added, according to a report from Motorsport.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video