While not many might see the positive to Wallace’s altercation with Larson, Dale Jr. seems to have found one right thing.
Wallace made a lot of noise in the NASCAR community last weekend after he seemed to intentionally clash with Larson as retaliation for the No. 5 driver’s previous move. However, it didn’t stop on the race tracks as Wallace approached Larson after the race and shoved him continuously.
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While he received a lot of criticism for his move, there is at least one thing that Wallace did right in the whole situation, says Dale Jr., which is that the 23XI Racing driver did not admit that it was intentional unlike Byron who admitted that his clash with Denny Hamlin was intentional at Texas.
“I think it’s, basically at this point, not NASCAR’s position to dive through the data and find intent. I think it’s more really Bubba’s position to provide the data that proves it that there was no intent. I mean to look like it was pretty obvious, I guess is my point, that Bubba tried to take him out…”
“Bubba’s saying exactly what he needs to say and not admit it right? That was Byron’s mistake. But I think everybody for the most part is pretty sure that it was an intentional clip of the right rear quarter panel that sends the #5 car into the wall. Takes the #20 car out. Bubba gets down and walks down the apron and then there’s the shoving match.”
“My position on this is, I think NASCAR is going to look at it through the same way and look it at through the same lens as they looked at the Gragson incident as they looked at the Byron incident.”
Wallace asserted that he did not retaliate against Larson and rather lost control after Larson bumped him into the wall. However, he did apologize for the incident after the race.
Wallace was nonetheless handed a one-race suspension for the incident.