NASCAR Suspends Bubba Wallace, But Penalty Could Have Been Worse

• On Tuesday, NASCAR suspended Bubba Wallace from next weekend’s third-from-last race at Homestead-Miami for intentionally wrecking Larson.

• There was no mention of a fine or probation or loss of points.

• NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell said Wallace's penalty was specific to 'what took place on the race track.'

• After Martinsville about seven years ago, backmarker Kenseth was suspended from two of the last three Cup Series races and put on probation for six months after intentionally wrecking leader Joey Logano in the Goody’s 500.

Compared to Matt Kenseth at Martinsville in the fall of 2015, Bubba Wallace got off pretty light for his actions last weekend at Las Vegas.

Flashback to 2015.

Following a race at Martinsville that season, backmarker Kenseth was suspended from two of the last three Cup Series races of 2015 after intentionally wrecking leader Joey Logano in the Goody’s 500. Kenseth, in the No. 20 for Joe Gibbs Racing, was nine laps down, having gone to the garage for repairs after an earlier multi-car incident that had not involved Logano.

Already out of the championship picture, Kenseth had no chance of gaining any positions with his badly damaged car. But he went back out, anyway, and slowed dramatically as Logano came down the frontstretch to lap him again at lap 456. Only a fool would not have recognized what was about to happen.

Just as Logano swept past on the outside, approaching Turn 1, Kenseth clearly turned right and hooked Logano’s No. 22 Ford in the left-rear. As Logano began spinning to the left, Kenseth kept pushing. He eventually planted the nose of his Toyota into Logano’s driver’s-side door and kept going, almost into Turn 2. Within seconds both cars were trashed and NASCAR said Kenseth was done for the day – even though he couldn’t have continued, anyway.

It was widely held at that time that Kenseth was repaying Logano for their controversial one-on-one incident at Kansas Speedway two weeks earlier. In that one, second-running Logano won after he roughed up—but did not wreck—leader Kenseth in the final laps of the 400-miler.

Several days later, NASCAR put Kenseth on probation for six months and suspended him from the upcoming races at Texas Motor Speedway and the penultimate race at Phoenix Raceway. Erik Jones subbed for Kenseth both weekends, finishing 20th at Texas and 19th at Phoenix. Kenseth finished seventh in his return for the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where teammate Kyle Busch won the first of his two championships.

NASCAR’s latest high-profile retaliation incident erupted when defending champion Kyle Larson, on the inside, was trying to pass Wallace in Turn 3 when they touched. Wallace brushed the wall and bounced off, going down the high-banked track as Larson came by on the inside. Wallace appeared to chase Larson and slam into his car’s right-rear. That turned Larson around, driver’s-side hard into the wall as he slid backward toward the start-finish line.

After both cars stopped, Wallace walked directly to Larson’s wrecked car and repeatedly shoved him in the chest. (Wallace is a burly, muscular 6-something 200-pounder; Larson goes maybe 5-6 and less than 150). Wallace then disobeyed rescue workers by walking toward the pits as cars were passing nearby.

On Tuesday, NASCAR suspended Wallace from next weekend’s third-from-last race at Homestead-Miami for intentionally wrecking Larson. There was no mention of a fine or probation or loss of points, and Wallace will be eligible for the next-to-last race at Martinsville and the season-finale on Nov. 6 at Phoenix Raceway. As expected, he issued an apology on Monday, saying, in part, that he will learn from the incident.

The driver for Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing team was penalized under Section 4.3.A; 4.4 C&E of the NASCAR Rule Book that deals with members’ code of contact. He was accused of intentionally wrecking Larson during the South Point 400. Neither driver was among the eight championship hopefuls at the time.

His on-track retaliation was so obvious that most of NASCAR’s broadcast partners—some of them former drivers—immediately decried what they had just seen. The words “intentional” and “blatant” and “dangerous” and “unacceptable” were often heard from both the radio and television crews. It’s rare that NASCAR’s “partners” publicly express such opinions.

On Tuesday, NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell said the penalty was specific to “what took place on the race track. When we look at how that incident occurred, in our minds it was really a dangerous act,” he said. “We thought it was intentional and put other competitors at risk. As we look at the sport and where we are, we thought that definitely crossed the line.”

He said in-car data allowed NASCAR to view the incident from different angles. “We’re confident in the data we have and why we made the decision,” he said. “We really had to react, and it’s an action we really don’t want to see going forward.”

It’s expected that John Hunter Nemechek will replace Wallace in 23XI’s No. 45 Toyota next weekend at Homestead.