Bubba Wallace has earned praise for his “professional approach” from former NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. after the incident involving him and Denny Hamlin on the last lap of the race at Kansas Speedway. The event compromised Wallace’s potential race win, but the 23XI Racing driver handled the situation gracefully.
Hamlin, who is the co-owner of 23XI Racing, led the race for 159 laps, but a late race restart handed Wallace the lead. Hamlin chased him hard to secure his 60th Cup Series victory. However, on the last lap, when the 44-year-old driver edged close to Wallace while making a pass on the inside, the pair made contact, which pushed Wallace towards the wall.
This slowed them both down for a moment, handing Chase Elliott the perfect chance to pass them and head straight to victory lane. Hamlin finished second, while Wallace ended up securing fifth place, and then vented his frustration by showing Hamlin the finger on the cooldown lap. However, he maintained his composure while addressing the media after the race.
Dale Jr. applauded him for his calm approach, despite the setback he had faced several minutes ago. Speaking on his Dale Jr. Download podcast, the former driver said:
“I like his attitude of going for it, and I think he has to go for it, he owes it to his team. I just hate it because Bubba was in a good spot and Bubba did everything all day long to put himself in a great spot, and his own team owner [cost him]. I think if you’re Bubba, it’s hard to go, ‘Man, I don’t feel good about this.’
“I shouldn’t assume but if I’m Bubba, I’m going, ‘Man, I don’t wanna be OK with this. I’m not OK with this.’ I think Bubba did a great job and was very professional in his interview. But he had every opportunity and every right to be frustrated about that and voice that opinion.”
Dale Jr. highlighted that despite being a co-owner of 23XI, Hamlin didn’t hold back from racing aggressively, although he could have chosen a different approach to pass Wallace. He added:
“Everybody’s gonna race as their competitors, I’m just saying this is a little too much. … It’s not the end of the world, I just think he could have done it differently and one of the two cars wins the race. He doesn’t have to let up, he doesn’t have to fall in line. Why did he not go to the bottom, right? Why did he drive into the corner and up the track and just totally take away the 23’s line? He had other ways to approach the corner, not that they would have worked. I mean, the likelihood of him completing a pass is not that high. So yes, he took the aggressive approach because he knew how low the percentage of the pass was, right?
“I just think that Denny’s personality and his approach and his ownership technique and everything, he’ll say, ‘Hey, if you’re going to drive my cars, this is how I do business.’ Will he do this every time? No, but in these situations racing for a championship and so forth, this what I’m gonna do and what I’m willing to do. That’s his prerogative, that’s his choice. It’s not the way I would have done it, but I’m not sitting there with 59 Cup wins either.”