You can’t catch a guy in the back right with speed. I don’t care if you Bubba Wallace, Dale Earnhardt or Junior Johnson. Friend. Only. Do not. Do it.
NASCAR yes Wallace suspended for a race for just doing it arrive Kyle Larson at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and rightfully so. This is the first suspension of a Cup Series driver for an incident on the track in nearly seven years and only the second suspension for a driver in any three series of international motorsport events. any country during the same time period.
It must be done.
The suspension would have had many good reasons if the incident had taken place on its own in a vacuum, where the two racers dueled were nowhere near anyone else. But they didn’t. They are two racers who don’t play playoffs smashing car doors and knocking out championship contenders Christopher Bell.
The timeout is understandable even if Wallace chose to retaliate for having Larson run into the outside wall but did so when they came down the front lever or rear seat, with a bounce on the rear bumper, or even even a shot left behind to send Larson back into the field. But that’s not what he did. He completed Cole Trickle with a bankroll on the fourth turn as he chased Larson to the edge of the grass in that yard and struck the right rear of the number 5 Chevy with the front left of the number 45. his. Toyota.
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Anyone who’s seen even one NASCAR lap knows that move sends the hit car into a lap that’s likely to send it into the outer, driver-side retaining wall.
“If he pulls him into the yard, maybe a little better, but the rear having to hook someone in the sniffer is not okay. I don’t know if people realize how bad that can be. no,” said one. Joey Logano said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio a few hours before the announcement of the suspension. “It could be the end of Kyle Larson’s career. For me, that’s what’s going on. Or his life. It’s the worst point when the right-back gets into the corner.
“[Larson] could have hit that thing on the side and it’s game over. There’s no place for that. You can not do it. If it’s being careful and you’re banging on the door… I don’t know if that’s okay, but at least you’re not putting someone’s life in danger. I don’t like using cars as weapons. Just go out and fight him. That’s fine if that’s what you really want to do and that’s how you want to handle it. “
Parking will be covered even if the Cup Series isn’t in the midst of a safety crisis. But it is. The past few weeks have seen The Next Generation car concern becomes a real public controversy, as the racers inside the car felt betrayed by the machine’s uncompromising frame. That rigid ride has led to injuries, especially concussion-related problems. Just this weekend, a future NASCAR Hall of Fame, Kurt Busch, announced that he will be retiring from the race full-time as he continues to grapple with those same symptoms, caused by a crash in one of those cars earlier this season. That car was Toyota No. 45. Yes, the same ride that Wallace drove on Sunday.
The penalty would be appropriate even if it were the only incident of its kind this season. But it’s not.
On July 6 at Road America, Xfinity Series racer Noah Gragson angry back Sage Karam with a hook in the rear right that caused Karam to turn into traffic. The collision seized 13 cars and Gragson’s boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr., declined to defend the move. Gragson was fined $30,000 and stopped for 30 points.
Less than a month ago, at the sister track in Las Vegas, Texas Motor Speedway, Larson’s teammate William Byron turn Denny Hamlin cautiously, causing Hamlin’s Camry to spin lazily across the field lawn. Hamlin tried to retaliate with the same caution. Byron was fined $50,000 and lost 25 points, although after an appeal the fine was doubled, the points were returned and Byron’s postseason survived as a result. Race control NASCAR handled it all pretty poorly, saying it didn’t work during the race because it didn’t see it. Did it not see a plane wreck on the hood? What a shame.
So all the things you’ve just read – the wreck at the speed of traffic, the apparent malicious intent of that wreck, the safety crisis, the lack of previous suspensions, even the state of affairs. Texas hot meltdown – all of that added to the equation that led us to Wallace’s suspension. A huge huge pile is enough.
It’s no secret that Wallace deals with a level of stress that most racers don’t. His social media timelines have become a minefield, set for hours by sofa critics who see him as a soft target and conspiracy theorists who still want to. The world believes that for some reason he is trying to sabotage the sport he loves. Why do they do that? Unfortunately, that’s too easy to figure out.
Perhaps that never-ending tension is why he intercepted so violently on Sunday, from destroying Larson to shoving him a few minutes later. Maybe that’s why Wallace’s fuse always seems to be so short, whether he’s muttering in the media about a competitor or stepping out of a virtual race with other NASCAR drivers. during the pandemic. That is for psychologists and sociologists to determine, or for Wallace to dissect.
Then again, anyone who watched Wallace race the Bandoleros as a teenager – and so did I – knows he always had a fire inside of him. All the racers who reached the pinnacle of the sport have it. They have to, and we love them for it. Each rider in that Hall of Fame has many moments rooted in that passion, and we’re all cheering for them. Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers fight. Dale Earnhardt interlocking. Tony Stewart throw helmets. That’s why NASCAR had no problem with Wallace shoving Larson. Put out that flame and you’re transmitting the heart of what makes motorsport great. Sure, cars are great, but it’s the people inside the cars that we love the most.
But all those riders must learn to cross the line between fiery and dangerous. The CEO of the NASCAR line, Steve O’Donnell, spoke on Tuesday when he spoke to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio following the announcement of the suspension.
“When we looked at the sport and where we were today and where we wanted to draw that line going forward, we thought [Wallace] definitely crossed the line and that’s what we focused on making this call,” he said.
They did the right thing. Wallace will certainly learn from it and be better for it. More importantly, everyone in the garage will learn from it. As a reminder, as the sport changes and no matter how many times the rule book may be revised and rewritten, there will always be one rule that can never go wrong. Car drivers have a single commandment never to break.
You can’t catch a guy in the back right with speed. Friend. Only. Do not. Do it.
