Dale Earnhardt Jr. defends Bubba Wallace amidst race fixing allegation over Kyle Larson Darlington wreck

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his thoughts on race manipulation allegation against Bubba Wallace after Darlington wreck.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. defends Bubba Wallace amidst race fixing allegation over Kyle Larson Darlington wreck

Bubba Wallace, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Larson (Via @BubbaWallace/X and IMAGO)

Team Penske Racing’s Rayn Blaney was close to securing his maiden win of the 2025 season, before his close friend Bubba Wallace got caught up in an incident that ruined everything for him. With just four laps left in the race, Kyle Larson, who was multiple laps down, suddenly checked up on the 23XI Racing driver, made contact with him, spun out and caused a race changing caution.

Kyle Larson was reacting to Tyler Reddick getting into the wall ahead of him, but his move during the checkup was too quick for Bubba Wallace to not make contact with him. The incident helped Reddick to close up on Ryan Blaney and gave Denny Hamlin the opportunity to win. Some fans made race manipulation allegation against Wallace, but Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. got his back.

YouTube video

Bubba spins Larson and you can see clearly as they’re exiting Turn 2, Larson just kind of powers down. I wonder why he did that? … I know [Reddick got into the wall], but that was so far in front of him.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download.

In his podcast, Junior shared his surprise about the sudden movement by Kyle Larson and why he powered down so hard, considering Reddick was way ahead of him in the track. He asserted that Wallace didn’t have anything to do with the incident as he was just caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I’m watching it and I’m like, ‘He’s a long ways back. I wonder why he powered down so hard.’ He just — middle of 1 and 2 kind of went by Bubba, so he knows Bubba is right on his right rear full steam. That was surprising. Everybody was like, ‘Oh, Bubba did it on purpose.’ But he did not.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. reveals reason behind drivers like Kyle Larson desperately don’t want DNFs

One of the major reasons behind the incident was Kyle Larson, who had a major wreck early in the race, coming back after fixing the car instead of parking the car. Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the same podcast, explains why teams will do everything to avoid DNFs.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Larson
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Larson (Via IMAGO)

He pointed out that no teams in the garage wants to have DNFs and as they will try to get back to racing, as they want to leave the track feeling they did everything right. The owners don’t think about money in such situation as team moral is important succeed in the sport.

The teams would do anything in the world they could to avoid walking out of there feeling like they didn’t try their hardest. They weren’t going to leave that racetrack thinking, ‘Yeah, we just kind of gave up’.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

In the same conversation Junior also highlighted how he thought giving up might get normalized with DVM policy. The new policies never sat good with him as he felt the will create drivers give up. But for racers like Kyle Larson, giving up is not an option.  

When the DVP [Damaged Vehicle Policy] came in, that was my concern. You’re going to normalize giving up. The mental aspect of it was what never sat well with me because it would normalize guys just sort of saying, ‘Alright, we’re done. Let’s just go home,’ and the driver’s home before the checkered flag falls.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

The comments from the two times Xfinity Series champion how important is for the teams and drivers to have a never give up mentality. The teams should keep this attitude they have alive regardless of the polices.