MARTINSVILLE, Va.: Bubba Wallace returned to the NASCAR Cup Series garage Saturday morning at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway after serving a one-race suspension handed down by NASCAR following an on-track incident with Kyle Larson at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway earlier this month.
During the South Point 400 at Las Vegas, the driver of the No. 45 McDonald’s Toyota intentionally wrecked the car of Larson and NASCAR deemed Wallace’s action detrimental parking the driver from competition last weekend at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.
Issuing an apology, the day prior to the penalty, Wallace expressed his remorse in a social media post:
“I want to apologize for my actions on Sunday following the on-track incident with Kyle Larson and the number 5 car.
“My behavior does not align with the core values that are shared by 23XI Racing and our partners, who have played a crucial role in my incredible journey to the top of this great sport
“I want to apologize to NASCAR and the fans, along with Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota for putting them in a situation in the Playoffs that they do not deserve.
“I compete with immense passion and with passion at times comes frustration. Upon reflecting, I should have represented our partners and core team values better that I did by letting my frustrations follow me outside of the car. You live and learn, and I intend to learn from this.”
On Saturday, the 23XI Racing driver has taken the time since the incident to reflect and assess his action, words and more importantly his thoughts going forward.
“Yeah, I mean I totally accept the penalty and the repercussions that come from my actions,” Wallace said Saturday morning.
“It was tough. I tweeted out, ‘humble pie.’ I mean, I hated not being in that race and I was excited, that was one of those races that was circled on the schedule. Toyotas have been really strong at the mile-and-a-half stuff and really love running at Homestead. I was bummed and legit bummed that I wasn’t racing. I had to put that aside and still help the team go out and grow and continue to gain speed with those two drivers.
“What have I learned? You have to think before you do. In this sport, it’s the heat of the moment type things that get to you. Seeing that and going back and looking at a 10,000-foot view, definitely could have handled everything way different and been in a different spot. I put myself in a bad light, I put our team in a bad light, our sponsors – it’s just something that I’m not proud of, but moving on, moving forward and not allowed to make that mistake again.”
After conversations with NASCAR leadership, he would task the sanctioning body for consistency in the future.
“I talked to (Steve) O’Donnell (NASCAR) and I talked to (Steve) Phelps (NASCAR) and I said, ‘Hey, I’m good with being the example if we can keep this consistent moving forward,’ because it’s happened multiple times this year and it’s something that may continue to happen you know, for other drivers down the road.”
Acknowledging that he has to think first before acting as well, he admitted that it has been humbling to be in this position.
“I definitely learned my lesson, but we have to be consistent with this no matter if it’s here at Martinsville or if it’s at Daytona or Talladega,” added Wallace. “We have to keep it consistent across the boards and across the series.
“That was the conversation, it was a good conversation.”
Moving on to Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, Wallace believes that the recent momentum before the suspension is still there for him and the team and that he has a good shot of building on that in the remaining two races of the season.
“I haven’t lost the edge that we’ve been on,” added Wallace. “The second half of this season has been really, really strong and the best of my career.
“Now I’ve kind of put a black light over this with this deal last week and I hate that because we still have the momentum on our side and a lot of things to do and excited to be back at the track and with the team here.”
Heading into the penultimate Cup race of the season on October 30, Wallace said he has no further thoughts of revenge and is focused to accomplishing the tasks at hand.
“There’s a lot of good things going into this weekend. I’m not coming back with a vengeance or anything like that.
I’m just going to continue to do what we’ve been doing.”
Follow Grace Krenrich on Twitter @grace3140.
