In the closing moments of the Busch Clash, Bubba Wallace was spun out by Kyle Larson and it looked pretty intentional.
As it turns out, there was more to it, and while Larson concedes he was trying to shove Wallace, it wasn’t meant to be a retaliatory spin.
The final incident can be viewed below.
A byproduct of that is that Tyler Reddick ran into the back of Ross Chastain in the ensuing stack-up which led to a retaliatory incident after the checkered flag between them as well.
Some backstory: Larson had sent Ty Gibbs around on the final lap of regulation but only because Wallace got into the back of him to trigger the figurative accordion effect.
According to Larson, Wallace had been driving into Larson several laps in a row and it reached a boiling point.
“He was really fast there on one of the long runs there at the end and I let him go because he was way faster,” Larson said. “The restarts get crazy. I think it was the second to last restart, and I was able to get in front of him and then the leaders started racing and that was right when Ty Gibbs got back in line and Bubba just decided to run through me and sent me through Ty and spun him.
“I hate that because we were running fifth, sixth and seventh. I thought we would settle in, get to the finish. From there, I was like, ‘okay, whatever, that’s this style of racing.’
“I haven’t seen any of the replays from the last restart but he got me again and then got me again the next corner. I think at that point that was three times to my none so I wanted to get him back before the checkered. I wasn’t trying to spin him out or anything; I was just trying to shove him through the corner like he was doing to me, and he ended up going around.
“Product of this racing and finally reaching my limit, I guess, but yeah, just how it goes.”
Wallace wasn’t available for post-race quotes but a tweet on the way to the airport summed up his thoughts.
Larson and Wallace have had previous run-ins, and while they’ve generally had a friendly relationship, there have been some on-track incidents.
The 2021 champion says it makes this a bigger story than what it probably is and he doesn’t plan to hold onto any of it from his end after Saturday.
“Obviously Bubba and I have had a history in the past, so I’m sure (and) I don’t really know (but) hopefully forgive and forget,” Larson said. “Like I said, he ran through me three times. I was just the one who happened to get him at the end. I hope he understands that part of it.
“Given our history, who knows but I’m over it. I probably would have been over it, too, if roles were reversed and I ran through him three times and he finally spun me out the last corner. But we have different personalities, too. We all do out there. Everybody handles it differently.
“But yeah, it’s just a product of this racing really. I try to tell myself to let things slide a little bit more just knowing that hits are coming from behind and stuff, but usually when you’re out there you can get a good sense of when it’s happening from the car directly behind you or four back.
“It’s just kind of the way it goes with this race. It’s just the Clash.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.