Bubba Wallace breaks silence on Kyle Larson wreck amidst race manipulation allegations

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace got involved in a race changing caution late in the race at Darlington Raceway, costing Ryan Blaney the win.

Bubba Wallace breaks silence on Kyle Larson wreck amidst race manipulation allegations

Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson (Via IMAGO)

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season so far has been impressive for both Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace. But they had one of the worst days of the year at Darlington Raceway and the incident involving the two ruined the race for their close friend Ryan Blaney, who was chasing his maiden win of the season.

With four laps left in the race, Team Penske Racing’s 2023 Cup champion Ryan Blaney found himself taking the lead away from 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, with a comfortable race win in his grip. At the same time, Kyle Larson, who was multiple laps down, overtook Bubba Wallace and got in front of him. At the exact moment, Reddick made contact with the wall.

This made the No:5 Chevy to break suddenly and slow down. Bubba Wallace, who barely saw the No:45 car making contact with the wall, didn’t expect such extreme reaction from the HMS driver and he slammed into the back of the Chevy, spinning him. This resulted in a caution flag coming out, giving drivers chance to pit.

That’s when the No:12 Ford Mustang team fumbled the bag, as the messed up on the pits and was able to come out at P4, behind Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick and William Byron despite coming in early. The No:11 team took advantage of the situation as Hamlin secured the race win, dominating the final restart.

Getting involved in a such a situation, Bubba Wallace was really disappointed as he cost him best friend a race win and some fans online even accused him race manipulation. He told The Athletics’ Jeff Gluck, that it was the sudden break him from Kyle Larson that caused the incident, before passing along a message to Blaney.

Bubba Wallace told me he didn’t think it was warranted for Larson to check up as much as he did after Reddick hit the wall but apologized for ruining Blaney’s day. He came up and whispered something in Blaney’s ear on pit road and Blaney declined to say what it was.

Jeff Gluck wrote on X.

How does Kyle Larson feel about the incident?

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson seems to have the same feelings about the incident. He didn’t give any statement to the media about the spin, but his crew chief Cliff Daniels explained how his driver felty. The No:5 chevy driver feels bad for getting involved in the mess.

Kyle Larson
Kyle Larson (Via IMAGO)

He admitted that the incident wasn’t Bubba Wallace’s fault and explained what went wrong. Daniels pointed out that Larson checked up early to not his Reddick, but the deacceleration was quick than Wallace expected, causing the contact.

We didn’t catch Kyle Larson before he left, but Cliff Daniels said Kyle told him he felt bad about being part of the last caution. They were trying to stay out of the way of the leaders and stay low, and Larson checked up early to make sure he didn’t get into Reddick, but Bubba didn’t know Larson was going to slow down that much.

Jeff Gluck wrote on X.

The comments from the veteran crew chief proves that the allegations of race manipulation are just attack on Wallace by his haters or stem from misunderstandings. It will be interesting to see if NASCAR will address the situation or make a statement on it.