NASCAR suspends Bubba Wallace one race for intentionally crashing Kyle Larson

NASCAR has suspended Bubba Wallace for Sunday's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway for his intentional crash of Kyle Larson at Las Vegas.

Wallace hooked Larson’s car into the wall after Larson raced him aggressively off Turn 4 in the first stage of the race. Larson was on the inside of Wallace and washed up the track. Wallace’s car hit the wall off the corner and he moved his car down the track to send Larson into the wall.

After exiting his crashed car, Wallace walked across the track to where Larson was getting out of his wrecked vehicle and shoved Larson multiple times. Larson, who didn’t want to engage in a physical altercation with Wallace, said after the incident that he understood why Bubba would be upset with his aggressive maneuver.

Wallace said after the crash that the steering on his car had “broke” when he hit the wall before hitting Larson’s car. Wallace posted a lengthy apology to social media on Monday for his actions. His move also collected Christopher Bell. Bell is currently alive in the third round of the playoffs. Larson was eliminated in the second round and Wallace’s No. 45 car was eliminated from the owner’s playoffs in the second round.

Wallace is the first NASCAR driver suspended for a race since Matt Kenseth in 2015, who got two races for intentionally crashing Joey Logano at Martinsville in retaliation for an incident weeks earlier. In its penalty report announcing Wallace’s punishment, NASCAR cited the rule that gives it discretion to penalize drivers who “intentionally wreck or spin another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from competition as a result.”

23XI Racing said it wouldn't appeal Wallace's suspension and that Truck Series driver and former full-time Cup Series driver John Hunter Nemechek would fill in for Wallace at Homestead.

NASCAR has punished retaliatory moves without suspensions in 2022

While Wallace is the first driver suspended for a Cup Series race in seven years, he’s the third driver punished for a retaliatory wreck or spin in 2022.

Noah Gragson was penalized 30 points and fined $35,000 for an intentional crash during the Xfinity Series race at Road America. Gragson was upset with the way he was being raced by Sage Karam and turned right into Karam’s car as they were accelerating down a long straightaway. The move collected many more cars than Wallace’s did.

William Byron was also initially penalized 25 points for his spin of Denny Hamlin under caution at Texas on Sep. 25. Byron, who said he hit Hamlin intentionally but wasn’t intending to spin him, was able to keep his place on track after the move because NASCAR officials in race control didn’t see the incident as it happened live. Hendrick Motorsports appealed Byron’s penalty and was able to get the points penalty eliminated while his $50,000 fine was doubled.

Neither Byron nor Gragson were suspended for their actions and it’s worth wondering if Byron’s appeal played a role in NASCAR issuing a stiffer penalty to Wallace. NASCAR slightly reworded its rule book in the aftermath of Hendrick’s successful appeal to add the word “spinning” to its list of intentional acts a driver can commit to draw a penalty.

NASCAR vice president Steve O'Donnell said Tuesday afternoon on SiriusXM that Wallace was penalized only for his crash of Larson and not for walking across the track and confronting the 2021 Cup Series champion.

Unlike the initial punishments of Gragson and Byron, Wallace and his 23XI Racing team did not receive a points penalty. That's significant as well. Wallace's No. 45 car can still finish as high as fifth in the Cup Series owner points standings. The owner points standings are a team's primary source of income from the NASCAR points fund. And given the No. 45 is currently 11th in the standings with three races to go, a 25-point or greater penalty would have a significant monetary impact at the end of the season. It's the big reason why Hendrick efforted to get Byron's points penalty taken away.

NASCAR’s suspension of Wallace also comes as it’s under intense scrutiny from drivers and fans alike for the safety of the 2022 Cup Series car. The redesigned car is too rigid in spots and doesn’t absorb impact as well as the previous car did. Both Alex Bowman and Kurt Busch are sidelined with concussions and Busch announced the day before the Vegas race that his full-time racing career was over because of the concussion he suffered in what looked like a routine crash at Pocono over the summer.

Larson noted the context of the safety discussion surrounding the car when he was asked about Wallace’s move. Joey Logano, the 2018 Cup Series champion, didn’t hold back on a Tuesday morning SiriusXM radio appearance about what Wallace did while driving a car that hasn’t been as safe as previous cars have been.

“The retaliation is not OK in the way it happened. If he spun him to the infield maybe it’s a little better. Maybe,” Logano said. “But right-rear hooking someone in the dogleg is not OK. That could have been — I don’t know if everyone realizes how bad that could have been. That could have been the end of Kyle Larson’s career. That to me was what was on the line. Or his life, right? That is the worst spot to get right-rear hooked into a corner.”