On Lap 95, Larson slid up into Wallace and knocked him into the outside wall. As Wallace came back down the track, he slammed into the right-rear of Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet, sending both cars spinning.
Playoff driver Christopher Bell was also swept in the crash and fell out of the race.
After exiting his own car, Wallace walked over to Larson’s wrecked car and started shoving Larson.
“Cliff (Daniels, 5 crew chief) is smart enough to know how easy these cars break,” said Wallace. “When you get shoved in the fence, deliberately like he (Larson) did, trying to force me to lift – the steering was gone, and he just so happened to be there. I hate it for our team. We had a super-fast car – not on short run speed, we were kind of falling back there and Larson wanted to make it a three-wide dive bomb. He never cleared me. I don’t lift. I know I’m kind of new to running up front, but I don’t lift. I wasn’t even in a spot to lift, he never lifted either and now we are junk. Piss poor move on his execution.”
He then told NBC to “stop fishing” when they asked further about it possibly being retaliation.
On the physical confrontation, Wallace added: “He (Larson) knows. He knows what he did was wrong. He wanted to question what I was doing, and he never cleared me. I just hate it for our team. Our McDonalds Toyota Camry was super solid – just needed to find a little bit on the short run and get the balance where we needed it. It would have been like Kansas and now the car is junk.”
Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Camaro, Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing, Toyota Camry, fight
Photo by: Ben Earp / NKP / Motorsport Images
Larson was also checked and released from the infield care center, and said that Wallace’s anger didn’t surprise him.
No, it didn’t surprise me,” said Larson. “I obviously made an aggressive move into (turn) three; got in low, got loose and chased it up a bit. He (Bubba Wallace) got to my right front, and it got him tight and into the wall. I knew he was going to retaliate. He had a reason to be mad, but his race wasn’t over until he retaliated.
“It is what it is. Just aggression turned into frustration and he retaliated.”
With recent concerns over injuries and concussions stemming from Next Gen crashes, Larson was asked about his thoughts on what he believed to be retaliation.
“I think with everything that’s been going on here lately, with head injuries, fractured ligaments and all that, I don’t think it’s probably the right thing to do,” added Larson.
“We’ve all done it – maybe not all of us – but I have. I’ve let the emotions get the best of me before, too. I know he’s probably still upset. I’m sure with everything going, he’ll know that he made a mistake in the retaliation part and I’m sure he’ll think twice about that next time.”
About the confrontation, he added that he would have preferred more of that over wrecking the cars.
“No, I saw him walking over, so I figured he would do something. Like I said, he had every right to be upset. I would rather him do that (rather) than tear up our cars in a dangerous manner. It is what it is.”
In his own interview, Bell said it was “obviously retaliation” from Wallace.