NASCAR suspended 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace for one race on Tuesday afternoon after he intentionally wrecked Kyle Larson in a shocking manner during the event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 16.
Let’s dive into the specifics of Wallace’s suspension and determine if it was the correct call.
Examining Bubba Wallace’s wreck at Las Vegas
Wallace’s suspension-worthy wreck took place in Stage 2 after the No. 45 car previously won Stage 1. He looked to have one of the cars to beat as the Toyota Racing fleet had very fast long-run speed.
However, two of the six Toyota drivers found themselves done for the race after Wallace decided to end Larson’s day. The video of the incident is below.
Larson and Wallace were battling as they were exiting Turn 4 when the No. 5 car got up the track a little bit. The two drivers did not make contact but it sent the No. 45 car pretty hard into the wall.
Once the two kept going straight, Wallace kept his foot fully on the throttle and turned left at around 160 MPH. This action ended with hooking Larson across an active front stretch with competitors flying by at full speed.
The No. 5 car was going to hit the wall before it made contact with Christopher Bell. All three drivers hit the wall and ended up having unrepairable vehicles. However, the drama did not stop at that point.
Wallace walked across a hot front stretch and confronted Larson after wiping him out in a dangerous manner. The 29-year-old proceeded to shove Larson but it did not escalate much after it was broken up.
This now brings us to the question of whether NASCAR’s suspension of Wallace was the correct decision. Well, it is not really hard to guess the answer.
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Bubba Wallace’s suspension was the correct decision by NASCAR
NASCAR’s suspension of Wallace for the Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway was absolutely the correct decision. There are many reasons why his actions are inexcusable at this level of racing.
Wallace hooked Larson across a front stretch at a track with very high rates of speed. The incident off Turn 4 certainly did not meet the criteria for this retaliation from the No. 45 car.
Larson did put Wallace in the wall hard but it’s not okay to put someone at risk of a serious injury when safety concerns of the NextGen car have been the topic of conversation lately. There’s even more to that factor of the wreck.
The No. 5 car was going to hit the wall at a similar angle as Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman, who are the drivers that suffered concussions in the NextGen car during the 2022 season.
If not for Bell’s presence at the time of the incident, Larson might have hit the wall in a worse fashion than both Busch and Bowman. This could have been much worse but thankfully, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was okay.
It was simply unacceptable. Wallace took out two playoff contenders as the No. 5 car is still in the owner’s championship while Bell is vying for his first Championship 4 appearance. Most notably, Bell is 23 points below the cut line.
Wallace was unapologetic when asked about ruining his Toyota teammate’s day and affecting his playoff chances after the wreck. It was not until the next day that he apologized for putting Bell in an unfair position.
The safety concerns and playoff ramifications of the incident make it one of the worst accidents ever seen during the NASCAR playoff era. The Joey Logano-Matt Kenseth wreck at Martinsville Speedway doesn’t even surpass it.
Now, NASCAR has been assigned the job to remain consistent in its rulings moving forward if it wants to promote safety and growth for everyone in the sport.
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NASCAR must use Bubba Wallace’s suspension as a precedent
There have been many people that are pointing fingers at NASCAR over the last day after the announcement of Wallace’s suspension. Those fingers have been pointed in many different directions.
Noah Gragson’s incident at Road America, Carson Hocevar’s hook at Lucas Oil Raceway, and William Byron’s intentional spinning of Denny Hamlin under caution at Texas Motor Speedway are all examples.
These people fail to paint the entire picture. Gragson intentionally wrecked Sage Karam and many others at Road America but that is a road course. Hocevar hooked Colby Howard at Lucas Oil but it was a short track at lower speeds.
Byron spinning Hamlin under caution at Texas took place with slower speeds and both drivers continued their night. Gragson and Byron were both given official 25-30 point penalties by NASCAR.
The major difference is that Wallace spun Larson across a front stretch of cars flying by at 180 MPH. The NextGen cars have a strong history of injuring drivers and they have been speaking up about the issue.
Gragson, Hocevar, and Byron did not perform an accident to the magnitude of Wallace. Maybe, Gragson’s accident is the closest one that resembles but it was certainly not correlating to the speeds at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Many will say Wallace’s suspension is unprecedented due to these previous incidents; however, his actions and the result of the crash are unprecedented as well. The 29-year-old intentionally took out two playoff contenders as a non-playoff driver.
That has never happened in the history of the NASCAR playoffs. Kenseth took out Logano from the lead while multiple laps down at a short track in the playoffs but they were the only two drivers involved.
Kenseth was given a two-race suspension compared to Wallace’s one-race suspension. The 23XI Racing driver is lucky to still compete during the current season. If NASCAR looked at the factors compared to Kenseth, most of them are more ominous.
However, NASCAR needs to use this as a moving baseline now. The penalty was likely not enough but it was in line with the penalties handed out this season. If Wallace wrecked Larson in the season after Kenseth, it would likely be different.
The one-race suspension was the correct decision based on this season but moving forward, NASCAR needs to draw a line. Any driver who intentionally wrecks another driver at a high rate of speed and a bad angle needs a suspension.
Any non-playoff driver who intentionally wrecks a playoff driver or multiple playoff drivers needs a suspension of at least three races. NASCAR arguably could’ve gone harsher on Wallace so this needs to be the era of stricter penalties.
If this idea was in place for the 2022 season, Gragson and Hocevar would have been suspended for one race. Gragson did this during the regular season while Hocevar was a playoff driver intentionally hooking a non-playoff driver.
Wallace wrecked two playoff teams as a non-playoff driver and based on Kenseth’s incident, it should have been a least three races. A non-playoff driver simply cannot affect the playoffs in this manner.
If Bell misses the Championship 4 by a few points, Wallace is fully responsible for ruining a career-defining season because of his careless actions on track. This certainly would not sit well with Toyota Racing.
No matter what happens moving forward, Wallace has to rebuild his image as this will carry with him for a long time. However, it’s up to NASCAR to give these types of incidents even harsher penalties in the future.