Bubba Wallace was racing a Legends car at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the Harvicks on Tuesday night when he found out he would be fined $50,000 by NASCAR for his retaliatory post-race door slam on Alex Bowman.
The timing actually couldn’t have been better as Kevin Harvick was in the position to give him valuable advice that may stick with him for years to come.
Wallace came into the media center on Saturday at Pocono Raceway, even after a disappointing qualifying effort and was both self-reflective and contrite — not only for what happened last weekend but his behavior for much of the the past half-decade.
“Honestly, my PR team is wondering what I’m going to say (and) she’s probably sweating bullets because she has no idea what I’m going to say here,” Wallace said of Sydnei Fryson, standing behind him. “The penalty was probably the best thing to ever happen to me.
“I’ve been miserable for years, walking around with a persona I’m not proud of. I apologize. I need to apologize to a lot of people, especially those who are close to me. Syd, I’ll start with you.”
He apologized to a reporter he blew off after the race at Chicago too.
“I’m just frustrated, trying way too hard and not focused on the right things. The door slam that Bowman said wasn’t a bump at all. For the people that wanted me out of the sport for the past 4-5 years, people don’t understand …”
Wallace said he was so mad because this was his best ever road course race, after a decade of notoriously being generally bad at them. He had race winning speed and never got to show it.
“How many years I’ve been terrible at road courses, so I’ve put my heart and soul into getting better at them, spending time with my team and at the sim and trying to be better,” he said. “Showing up to Chucago, that was our best road course race ever and to have that wiped out in two corners and then the conditions changed … when that’s all ripped away, you feel some type of entitlement to show your frustration.”
With that said, Wallace took responsibility for what he did to Bowman too.
“Did I time it wrong? 100 percent,” Wallace said. “His window net was down, seatbelts were off, not an ideal situation. It’s the guy you’re racing against in the points and he goes on to win the race and it’s icing on the cake, right? Three or four slaps in the face when you’re working your ass off for the team and it’s just ripped away.
“I’m not justifying it all but I’m a passionate guy and I let my frustration get the best of me.”
Wallace credited Harvick for ‘media training’ on Tuesday night.
“We were at the shootout racing Legend cars with Kevin and (son) Keelan,” Wallace said. “He said ‘you ready to roll’ for qualifying and I said, ‘no, I just got fined.’ He said, ‘man that sucks’ and he told me to show up with a smile on my face.”
Wallace gave a big smile.
“Here’s my smile,” he said. “I may not agree with the penalty but he also told me a lot of powerful things like to be the most fun-loving guy I can be. That’s one of the most important things that’s been told to me, from people who don’t see who I actually am on Sundays.
“That broke me because I always preach about being the same guy on and off the race track. It’s a pressure cooker to be at the Cup level right? The past four years I’ve been miserable and walking around like everything is okay. Not from a mental standpoint and my mental is okay but I’m trying to carry around this persona that nothing bothers me and when one thing goes wrong, I crumble. I came into this weekend with a smile on my face an wanting to have fun. That’s what I’m focused on.”
Wallace had a poor qualifying effort on Saturday, and conceded he would typically snap at people for that too, but he’s trying to start over this weekend.
“I did not have fun in qualifying,” he said. “I about crashed but it is what it is. If this was last week I would be pissed off and wouldn’t want to talk to you guys but you know what, you roll with the punches, roll with the 50,000 fine and roll with the 26th qualifying spot. You have another day to figure it out and pass a bunch of cars. That’s where my mind is at.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.