By Luis Torres, Staff Writer
Bubba Wallace began Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a Stage 1 win. However, things went straight to hell on the 94th lap that eliminated himself and two other drivers.
In an intense battle for fifth, Kyle Larson went low and made it three wide on Wallace and Kevin Harvick. Larson moved up the middle in Turn 3 when the heat of the contest began to escalate.
As the trio entered Turn 4, Larson got sideways and tangled with Wallace. As a result, it sent Wallace into the outside wall and while Harvick was able to avoid the mayhem, Wallace was beyond peeved at Larson.
It led to Wallace going low, hooking Larson which sent both of them hard into the Turn 4 wall.
“If that wasn’t retaliation, I don’t know what was,” said Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels after the whole fiasco.
“Cliff is smart enough to know how easily these cars break,” Wallace’s response to Daniels’ comment.
Both competitors got out of their cars under their own power, but Wallace’s livid mindset continued and began shoving Larson multiple times.
From Wallace’s point of view, he felt the contact was deliberate after being shoved into the fence and never cleared him in the three-wide battle.
“(Larson) forced me to lift and the steering was gone. Just so happen to be there,” Wallace on Larson. “I hate it for the team. Super fast car, but I had no short run speed. Larson wanted to make a three-wide dive bomb and never cleared me.
“I don’t lift. I’m kind of new running up front, but I don’t lift,” Wallace continued. “I wasn’t even in a spot to lift and he never lifted either. Now we’re junk and that’s a piss poor move on his execution.”
No longer in the fight for back-to-back championships, Larson’s seventh exit of the year still had negative ramifications. That being the the less publicized Owners’ Championship as the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team are in the Round of 8 for that title battle.
Not surprised by the confrontation from Wallace, Larson explained his aggressive move and noted that Wallace’s afternoon could’ve continued had it not been for the retaliation.
“I got in low and got loose,” said Larson. “Chased it up a bit and he got into my right front. It got him tight and into the wall. I knew he was going to retaliate and had every reason to be mad, but his race wasn’t over until he retaliated. Just aggression turned…
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