Matt Johnson
NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace seemed to revert to his old ways during Sunday’s race at Martinsville, driving into Carson Hocevar and ultimately wrecking himself to finish 36th in the Cook Out 400. One day later, the driver of the No. 23 car is facing some criticism from his spotter.
Spotter Freddie Kraft addressed the incident during Monday’s episode of Door, Bumper, Clear, saying “that s*** can’t happen” and highlighting how Wallace’s actions are particularly costly given his aspirations to be a serious competitor in The Chase.
Related: Denny Hamlin Addresses Bubba Wallace-Carson Hocevar Incident
“You can’t have those mistakes. I’ll take him at his word that he misjudged; I know he meant to get into him, but I don’t think he meant, obviously, to end our day. It can’t happen. You can’t have those moments if you want to be a contender for the championship or a contender to be top five, seven, or eight in points, whatever it is. That s*** can’t happen. Unfortunately, we ended our day yesterday self-inflictedly.”
Freddie Kraft, spotter for the No. 23 car, on Bubba Wallace’s incident with Carson Hocevar
At the time of the incident, Wallace was inside the top-16 and seemingly had a shot of coming away with anywhere from 18 to 22 points depending on where he finished the race. Instead, because of the race-ending damage the No. 23 car suffered, he earned just 1 point for finishing 36th.
Putting that point difference into perspective, 16 additional points would put Wallace at 222 on the season through seven races. Instead of being in a four-way tie at 206 points and sitting in 11th, he and his team would be tied with Ty Gibbs for the sixth-most points this season.
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To make matters worse for the No. 23 team, this completely avoidable moment came just a week after Wallace finished 34th at Darlington and accrued just 11 points. The only difference is that in that race, the damage sustained to the car was caused by contact that Denny Hamlin made when he first drove into Erik Jones. Under the new Chase format, points in every race are even more important, and drivers only get a few mulligans during the regular season where DNFs won’t take them out of contention.
Top drivers have also raised the point that for someone to have a realistic shot at winning the 10-race Chase, they need to finish the regular season sixth or better in points. For the drivers seeded seventh through 16th, at that point they’re just racing for where they’ll finish in the final standings and the money that comes with that.
While Wallace might’ve been frustrated with the performance of his car on Sunday and Hocevar’s actions have been described as over-aggressive and a bit reckless, a split-second reaction fueled by emotions cost Wallace double-digit points. While he still might make the playoffs, he’s now responsible for the team’s margin for error moving forward being razor-thin.
