NASCAR penalized driver Bubba Wallace with a $50,000 fine Wednesday after Wallace knocked Chicago Street Race winner Alex Bowman’s car into the wall after the conclusion of Sunday’s race.
Wallace, angered by an incident earlier in the day which saw Bowman accidentally spin Wallace’s No. 23 car on a wet track, pulled up alongside Bowman’s No 48 car after the checkered flag and veered sharply left. The cars made contact and Bowman’s car hit a concrete barrier hard enough to briefly lift his right front tire off the ground.
An in-car camera shot showed an unprepared Bowman, who had his window net already dropped, getting jostled and then putting his hands up in a “what the…?” gesture.
Bowman later said he did not think Wallace should be penalized for the incident and repeatedly expressed remorse for the earlier crash which infuriated Wallace (who had been trying to race his way into NASCAR’s playoffs with Bowman as one of his primary competitors).
“I was fighting with my windshield wiper switch trying to get the thing working,” Bowman said. “I was focused on that, missed the corner and cleaned him out. I just messed up and absolutely ruined his day.
Bowman added Wallace “barely hit me” and it was “plenty deserved.” But NASCAR officials saw it differently, because they viewed it as enough of a safety concern to issue a penalty.
There is a precedent for an angry driver being penalized after slamming his car into the race winner. In 2006, Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun out Carl Edwards during an Xfinity Series race at Michigan and Edwards then retaliated by driving into Earnhardt’s door while the driver’s hand was out the window. Edwards was fined $20,000 and issued an apology.