It’s been a little bit of a wild start to Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, and on Lap 11, things got straight up bizarre.
Going into the sharp left hand Turn 12, at the end of the longest straightaway on the 3.410-mile road course, Bubba Wallace appeared to lock up the brakes on his No. 23 Toyota Camry. As a result, Wallace slammed hard into the rear of Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
The contact destroyed the front of Wallace’s car and spun Larson.
Here is a video of the incident:
Here is the incident between Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson: pic.twitter.com/Ny0Z4b92lX
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) March 26, 2023
Erik Jones also suffered damage to the left side of his No. 43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB machine.
At the time of the crash, Larson was running ninth, and Wallace was running around 11th.
Following a trip to the infield care center, Wallace took blame for the incident and stated that if he keeps making rookie mistakes that he needs to be replaced.
“Broke a toe link in the rear and then an oil line. Just trying my hardest to not go down the slippery slope of self-doubt, right here,” Wallace stated. “Two weeks in a row making rookie mistakes, six years into Cup, need to be replaced.”
Bubba Wallace after a mistake ends his day at COTA: pic.twitter.com/I36fmTgfsi
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 26, 2023
After the two drivers drove away from the scene of this crash, Larson went for another spin while it appeared that he and Wallace were coming to pit road, or as Denny Hamlin assumed, Larson was attempting to get payback.
Either way, Larson spun again off the front bumper of Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota:
And here is the follow up spin by Larson, what do you think? Was he going for retaliation? pic.twitter.com/kW9mAchSy7
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) March 26, 2023
The two drivers have a history that dates back to last fall at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when Larson tangled with Wallace in the early laps of that race. After being put into the wall, Wallace retaliated by veering into the rear of Larson’s car, crashing both drivers out.
After the two drivers climbed from their cars at Las Vegas, Wallace got into Larson’s face and delivered several massive shoves to the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
Following the situation in Las Vegas, Wallace was suspended for one NASCAR Cup Series event.
Larson is now scored in 36th position in Sunday’s race at COTA, while Wallace was unable to get his car repaired and is done for the day.
