Dale Jr. weighs in…
Just about every NASCAR fan on the planet saw Bubba Wallace shove Kyle Larson, after Wallace took out Larson in retaliation for sending him into the wall while trying to make a pass at Las Vegas this past Sunday.
The move ultimately ended the day for Larson and Wallace, as well as playoff driver Christopher Bell, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Many fans were calling for a suspension for Wallace, and Wallace ended up releasing an apology later.
However, NASCAR ultimately decided to suspend Wallace for this weekend’s race at Homestead Miami Speedway, as his actions were violations of NASCAR’s Member Code of Conduct.
It’s the first time a Cup Series driver has been parked since 2015.
With that being said, Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke about the incident and suspension on his The Dale Jr. Download podcast.
Earnhardt admitted that it appeared pretty obvious that Wallace had full intent to take out Larson after Larson got loose rode him into the wall. and since Wallace claimed his steering went out, it was gonna be on him to prove that was the case.
Of course, as a driver, you should probably never admit to doing something very dangerous (much like William Byron did earlier this year), and that’s exactly what Bubba did.
He then weighed in on the shoving match that occurred after the wreck, and how they’ll look at it similarly to the Gragson and Byron incidents:
“I think, if I had to guess, it’s gonna be 100 points, 100 driver points, and $100,000. Could be a little more on the monetary side, because of the speed, of going 150 mph and having that intentional crash…
There was also the issue of Bubba getting out of his car and walking down the apron. I think that NASCAR made a rule a year or two ago about walking down the track or walking out of your race car anywhere… Just leaving your car, I don’t know what the rule is.”
The detail that NASCAR has, about what Bubba did with his steering throttle and all those things, will be massively detailed, way more that what we were able to show you on television.
So they’ll have a lot of information to be able to make their decision. And I feel like with the information they have, they’ll be confident on what they decide.”
He also talked about the post race interview Bubba had with Marty Snider:
“The only thing I thought was interesting, was that Marty kept fishing. The reason that’s interesting to me is that I’m privy to conversation, about what our bosses think about our interviews, and the questions we ask, particularly with the pit reporters.
Pit reporters are put in a unique position where they’re the ones that have to stand there in that moment. The driver’s mad, he doesn’t even wanna be there. He knows he’s having to get ready to get asked the question that he doesn’t want to get asked.”
Check it out the full segment below:
