Kyle Petty Blasts Bubba Wallace for Wrecking “Easy Target” Carson Hocevar at Martinsville

NASCAR insider Kyle Petty was unimpressed with 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace’s aggressive moves on Sunday at Martinsville.

Kyle Petty Blasts Bubba Wallace for Wrecking “Easy Target” Carson Hocevar at Martinsville

Bubba Wallace, Kyle Petty and Carson Hocevar (Via IMAGO)

The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville witnessed a wild moment involving Bubba Wallace and Carson Hocevar. No:23 Toyota bulldozed into the No:77 Chevy on the final stage of the race, in a misjudged attempt at revenge for a racing incident earlier in the race.

Ex-racer Kyle Petty wasn’t happy with how the 23XI Racing driver acted in the incident and on his NASCAR Inside the Race show called him out. He pointed out that the playback was unnecessary, as going three wide is part of Martinsville racing and highlighted how the Spire Motorsports driver was an easy target, owing the negative feeling towards the youngster because of his aggressive racing.

Hocevar is an easy target right now. You almost wrecked Hocevar, and everybody says, ‘Well, that’s just Hocevar. He had that one coming.’ But in this case, I don’t think Hoecvar had this coming, man. Taking you three-wide at Martinsville is not caused for what we’re seeing right here on the screen.

Kyle Petty said on his podcast.

Further talking about the point, the co-host of the show Steve Letarte came in the veteran racers defense. He pointed out that Bubba Wallace misjudged the acceleration and caused the incident. The 23XI racer made the same excuse on his post-incident interview. Kyle Petty though didn’t seem to buy the explanation.

I think Bubba misjudged how far he was pushing the accelerator down. I think that’s what he misjudged. …That’s just Martinsville. You give him a shot because you’re going to go to the left.

Steve Letarte asserted via NASCAR Inside the Race.

Kyle Petty exposes Bubba Wallace’s double frustrations at Martinsville

Earlier in the same conversation, Kyle Petty talked about how much frustration there was build up in Bubba Wallace, who was having one of the worst days of the season on Sunday. The No:23 driver wasn’t able to cope with having a bad day, after having six consecutive strong weekends in the 2026 season and that made him make the wrong move at Martinsville.  

Kyle Petty
Bubba Wallace and Kyle Petty (Images via IMAGO)

Listen, I’ve been wrecked and I’ve wrecked. And it is frustration. And Bubba has a little bit of double frustration. I’m going to say this. Because you’re getting beat and banged on, you’re not having the day you want to have, and the whole time we’ve talked about this year, we’ve talked about 23XI and Tyler Reddick. And oh yeah, Bubba’s having a good year. Tyler Reddick. And oh yeah, Bubba had another decent run. Oh yeah, Bubba.

Kyle Petty said.

The veteran also highlighted how there was also some frustration building insider Bubba Wallace with regards losing the teammate battle to Tyler Reddick. The former hasn’t won a single race this season, while the No:45 team was on the victory lane four times.

And I think that’s a little bit, internally, you race your teammates. I don’t give a rat’s rear end what anybody says. You race your teammates. You want to be top of the heap, king of the hill in your own team. And I think there’s some frustration and some pent-up anger in that when you get into it.

Kyle Petty added.

Overall, it was day to forget for Bubba Wallace and he needs move on from it, after apologizing to the Spire Motorsports driver. It would be interesting to see if Carson Hocevar will have his payback on the 23XI driver in the remaining races of the season.

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