MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Bubba Wallace isn’t among the group of eight drivers fighting it out to make the Championship Four for the NASCAR Cup Series championship race.
But he has certainly been a major topic of conversation the past two weeks.
Wallace returned to the NASCAR Cup Series garage area at Martinsville Speedway Saturday morning after serving a one-race suspension from NASCAR.
Wallace’s No. 45 Toyota was parked because of his celebrated incident with Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 16. NASCAR officials believe Wallace intentionally wrecked Larson as retaliation to some hard racing between the two drivers after Wallace’s Toyota bounced off the turn four wall.
Wallace had a smile on his face as he walked out of the rear of the team transporter to face a large contingent of media members Saturday morning.
“I totally accept the penalty and the repercussions that come from my actions,” Wallace said. “I talked to (Steve) O’Donnell (NASCAR Chief Operating Officer), and I talked to (Steve) Phelps (NASCAR President), and I said, ‘Hey, I’m good with being the example if we can keep this consistent moving forward,’ because it’s happened multiple times this year and it’s something that may continue to happen you know, for other drivers down the road.
“I definitely learned my lesson, but we have to be consistent with this no matter if it’s here at Martinsville or if it’s at Daytona (Fla.) or Talladega (Ala.). We have to keep it consistent across the boards and across the series. That was the conversation, it was a good conversation.
“And for the record, I have talked to (Kyle) Larson, and we had a great conversation this week. I think the best thing for us is we both understood where our frustrations were and moving forward and how we both can handle those situations better.”
The driver for 23XI Racing owned by fellow Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin and Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan called it a humbling experience.
“They were understanding of the heat of the moment type things, but they were very adamant about how we need to handle those five seconds later,” Wallace said of his team owners. “You need to think, like I said earlier, you need to think before you do. That was the biggest thing. They still support me and we’re here. Just have to go out and continue to build this team up.
“It was tough,” he continued. “I tweeted out, ‘humble pie.’ I hated not being in that race (at Homestead) and I was excited, that was one of those races that was circled on the schedule. Toyotas have been really strong at the mile-and-a-half stuff and really love running at Homestead. I was bummed and legit bummed that I wasn’t racing.
“I had to put that aside and still help the team go out and grow and continue to gain speed with those two drivers.”
Through adversity of being sent to the sidelines, Wallace has chosen to use it as a learning experience.
“What have I learned? You have to think before you do,” Wallace said. “In this sport, it’s the heat of the moment type things that get to you.
“Seeing that and going back and looking at a 10,000-foot view, definitely could have handled everything way different and been in a different spot. I put myself in a bad light, I put our team in a bad light, our sponsors – it’s just something that I’m not proud of, but moving on, moving forward and not allowed to make that mistake again.”
Although he was unable to participate in last Sunday’s race, Wallace did his best to help his replacement, John Hunter Nemechek, prepare for practice, qualifying and the race. He said sitting out a race really threw off his routine and that was the toughest part.
Wallace is prepared to move forward, beginning with Sunday’s Xfinity 500 – the next-to-last race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.
“I have to go out and get back on the horse and go out and compete,” Wallace said. “And I think we have a really good shot this weekend at moving forward and getting this all behind us.
“Great track for us here at Martinsville. There’s a lot of good things going into this weekend. I’m not coming back with a vengeance or anything like that. I’m just going to continue to do what we’ve been doing.”