Bubba Wallace Faces Frustration in Early NASCAR Cup Series Races
Bubba Wallace currently sits in second place in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings after the first two races of the season, but his journey has been anything but smooth. At Daytona, he finished 10th, and in the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway, he ended up in eighth place. For the second consecutive week, his 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick crossed the finish line first.
Wallace admitted that he had to watch the race’s final two laps multiple times to understand what went wrong. He was leading as the field approached the white flag, but when he moved up to block Carson Hocevar, the Spire Motorsports driver dove to the inside of Wallace, taking several cars with him. This left Wallace without any support to push him forward.
“I didn’t think I moved up that much to allow… to put myself up top, top of (turn) three,” said Wallace, who led 46 laps in the race that ended in double overtime. “Unfortunate, but man, what a race car we had today (Sunday). Man, what could have been. Go on to COTA (Circuit of Americas) and pray for me there.”
Kyle Larson Takes Responsibility for a Major Mistake
Kyle Larson led eight times for 48 laps in the Autotrader 400’s first 160 laps, but as he approached the end of Stage 2, he made a costly error. He attempted to move from the outside lane to the bottom, but he didn’t realize Shane van Gisbergen was on his inside.
“I just messed up,” Larson said after being eliminated from the race that ended in double overtime with Tyler Reddick as the victor. “I knew the No. 45 (Reddick) was inside of me at one point of the corner, but I got clear of him. I didn’t quite realize that the No. 97 (Van Gisbergen) had gotten inside of him. So, once I was clear, I just wanted to cut distance and short-cut my way to the Stage finish. The No. 97 was out of my mirror. I just hung a quick left and ran right into him. There was nothing anyone else did wrong, it was all on me.”
Larson finished in 32nd place, while Van Gisbergen continued in the event and eventually finished sixth, marking his best finish on an oval.
Kyle Busch Expresses Frustration After Being Involved in a Wreck
Kyle Busch, who won his third consecutive NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at EchoPark Speedway on Saturday, left the Cup Series race the following day in frustration due to a wreck that eliminated him.
“I just didn’t have the best of exits off of turn two and I was a little crooked getting to the wall,” Busch explained. “I just got rammed by the No. 4 (Noah Gragson). No check-up or anything. He didn’t give me an opportunity to make sure I was straight before hitting me or get into me gently to just try and get the momentum back going again. He just drove right through me. It sucks for this… team and everyone at Richard Childress Racing. We definitely would have finished better than where we were.”
Busch’s 34th-place finish left him 24th in the driver standings after two races.
Four Multi-Car Crashes Take a Toll on the Field
The superspeedway-style racing at the 1.54-mile EchoPark Speedway is mentally draining on the drivers, and with the close-quarters racing at high speeds, multi-car crashes have become the norm.
During Sunday’s Autotrader 400, there were four wrecks involving seven or more cars:
- Lap 82 in turn three: Eight cars were involved—Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Josh Berry, Riley Herbst, Cole Custer, John Hunter Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, and B.J. McLeod. Only Gibbs and Berry were eliminated.
- Lap 103 in turn two: Seven cars were involved—Austin Dillon, Todd Gilliland, Herbst, Zane Smith, Custer, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and McLeod. This time, Stenhouse was eliminated.
- Lap 224 on the frontstretch: Nine cars were involved—Hamlin, A.J. Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, William Byron, Reddick, Alex Bowman, Michael McDowell, and Connor Zilisch. That wreck eliminated Zilisch.
- Lap 257 in turn three: An 11-car pileup stopped the race for 10 minutes and 31 seconds, sending it into overtime. That involved Austin Cindric, Dillon, Noah Gragson, Hamlin, Logano, Byron, Gilliland, Custer, Nemechek, Erik Jones, and Cody Ware. Byron accepted the blame for that accident.
“I just didn’t have much grip, so I was searching for air and got loose,” said Byron, who finished 28th. “It was on me. I was just pushing hard and had to kind of put myself in some weird spots. I didn’t have any steering, so the further I got down the track, I just kept turning to the right. When I slowed down, I was just hoping I could get back to pit road, but then I got clocked. It was a wild race. It was crazy, but nothing out of the ordinary.”
Final Results from the Autotrader 400
Here are the final results from the Autotrader 400:
| FINISH/START | CAR | DRIVER | MANUFACTURER | LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. (1) | 2 | Tyler Reddick | Toyota | 271 |
| 2. (34) | 18 | Chase Briscoe | Toyota | 271 |
| 3. (21) | 10 | Ross Chastain | Chevrolet | 271 |
| 4. (15) | 23 | Carson Hocevar | Chevrolet | 271 |
| 5. (12) | 11 | Daniel Suarez | Chevrolet | 271 |
| 6. (28) | 12 | Shane Van Gisbergen | Chevrolet | 271 |
| 7. (6) | 19 | Zane Smith | Ford | 271 |
| 8. (9) | 23 | Bubba Wallace | Toyota | 271 |
| 9. (26) | 15 | Ryan Preece | Ford | 271 |
| 10. (22) | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 271 |
This race saw 10 caution flags over 67 laps, with multiple incidents contributing to the chaos. The race concluded in double overtime, with Tyler Reddick securing the victory by a margin of 0.164 seconds. The average speed was 117.865 mph, and the total race time was 3 hours, 32 minutes, and 27 seconds.
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