DOVER, Del. — Bubba Wallace saw red after getting dumped by John Hunter Nemechek with 15 laps remaining in last Sunday‘s Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International. After the race, Toyota mate Christopher Bell confronted Wallace on pit road, wondering what had gotten into him.
“I got wiped out by [Nemechek],” Wallace told reporters on Friday at Dover Motor Speedway. “We were in potential for a top-10, top-12 day. I got wiped out following [Tyler Reddick], and when I put so much freaking effort into becoming a better road-course racer — I joke with you guys that I suck and I don‘t give a damn about road courses; I really do. It‘s a competitive nature and I push hard every time we get into the car and at that point in the race, everything was clicking.”
Wallace was on the cusp of bettering or equaling his lone Watkins Glen top 10 from 2025, when he placed eighth. He was rivaling the lap times of Reddick, his 23XI Racing teammate, and when he was clipped entering Turn 1 by a fellow Toyota teammate, all bets were off.
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“When that happens, you see freaking red and you don‘t care who is out there. You don‘t care if your wife and kids are out on the race track, you are going to race the dog [expletive] out of them because you had everything ripped away from you.
“[Riley Herbst] was in that mix, I raced the [expletive] out of him. [Christopher Bell] was in the mix, I raced the [expletive] out of him. Whoever else was in that mix, I didn‘t care just because my race was ruined 30 seconds beforehand. They have no idea, so I put myself in their shoes. What you see on pit road, C-Bell is pissed that I raced him so hard and that was simply me saying, ‘I don‘t give a damn.’ I just had my race ruined and so I‘m going to race everyone hard. I don‘t care who it is.”
Later on Sunday evening, Wallace called Bell to further discuss their on-track battle. It led to a civil conversation with both drivers putting their fierce battle in the rear view.
“We didn‘t even have a run-in on track,” Bell told NASCAR.com after rounding out the top five in Friday‘s Ecosave 200 Craftsman Truck Series race. “He was very aggressive towards me, and I asked him what was up. He obviously had a rough day and a rough go of it. I get it.
“If I wouldn‘t have confronted him, I don‘t think he would have known that I was upset. We‘re all great.”
Before their tight-quarters racing, Bell had no knowledge that Wallace had spun. He thought that Wallace was dropping positions on old tires.
Wallace ended: “I said, ‘I would understand that scenario and you would expect me to point you by,’ and I damn sure would. Just like every other time I‘m on a road course bleeding spots, have at it. In that one, when I just went from everything is clicking — everything is still clicking — but I‘m pissed off doing it now, so you were just caught in the crosshairs.”
Bell took the checkered flag in 21st position, his worst showing in six Watkins Glen attempts. Wallace plummeted to 29th after the contact.
