If you didn’t know before looking at their X (or Twitter) feeds, Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace are best friends off the track.
But when Blaney was disqualified after this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas for an illegal shock, Bubba found some comfort in his friend’s misfortune, which improved his finishing position on paper.
However, the celebration was short-lived. A day after disqualifying him, NASCAR said they made a mistake and reversed the disqualification, reinstating Blaney’s finishing position and the points that he earned from the race – bumping Bubba back down a spot in the finishing order.
NASCAR blamed the mistake on an issue with the template used to check cars and parts after the race.
The disqualification – and subsequent reversal – had a big impact on the Cup Series championship picture: Blaney, who is currently in the round of 8 and fighting for a place in the final four in three weeks, currently sits in 7th position in the standings, 17 points below the cutoff to make the final round.
But the penalty, before it was reversed, had dropped Blaney to 8th place, last in the round and 56 points below the cut line. So needless to say Blaney was thankful that the disqualification was overturned, even if Bubba wasn’t so happy about it.
Of course the points don’t matter as much to Wallace, who was eliminated from the playoffs during the last round, despite having a solid day at the Charlotte Roval in the final race of the round of 12.
But with Blaney still fighting for a championship as the Cup Series heads to Homestead Miami Speedway this weekend, Blaney took to Twitter to poke some fun at his friend – who was suspended for last year’s race at Homestead after intentionally wrecking Kyle Larson the weekend before.
Bubba fired back with a video of Blaney spinning during the race after shifting into the wrong gear while leaving pit road, telling Blaney that he learned what NOT to do while watching the race:
Blaney then responded by pointing out that Bubba was watching the race from his couch, making it two weeks in a row that he learned a lesson:
Bubba came back by complimenting his friend (kind of), but said that everybody’s just waiting for him to choke:
And Blaney dropped a bomb on Bubba, saying that Bubba’s actually teaching him what not to do on the track after watching him choke in the last round of the playoffs:
It was all friendly banter between two buds, as Bubba responded by asking Blaney if he wanted to have beers later.
Seems like Blaney’s more of a bourbon guy though. (Respect).
And Blaney clarified that the banter between the two was all in fun. Hell, for all we know they were hanging out together tweeting at each other, which would make the exchange all the more hilarious.
I mean, if you can’t talk a little trash to your friends, are they even your friends?
