Bubba Wallace on moving onto Kansas after Dover wreck: 'Hopefully we're not around any squirrels'
Bubba Wallace recorded his second consecutive DNF during Sunday’s Würth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway after being involved in a Lap 328 caution.
Wallace, running 11th at the time, got turned by Zane Smith coming out of Turn 2, taking out William Byron and Christopher Bell as well. Wallace did his best to stay composed speaking with Jamie Little of FOX Sports before firing a shot at Smith.
“I guess turning 30, gonna be a dad, you gotta be more mature,” Wallace said. “Just a bummer. … Just not the result we needed — back-to-back DNFs. Man, [crew chief] Bootie [Barker] said it perfect Monday. I was pissed off and frustrated after Talladega and he said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have to grind our ass off for Dover from practice to qualifying to the race and it’s not gonna be pretty.’ I don’t think he meant that part, wrecking out wasn’t gonna be pretty. But we had to grind. Proud of the effort we put in every week, just unfortunate with no results to show for it. We’ll just go on to Kansas where hopefully we’re not around any squirrels and go kick their ass.”
Bubba Wallace suffers unfortunate outcome at Dover
Former Cup Series crew chief Todd Parrott once dropped this line: “When you run with the squirrels, you’re bound to get your nuts cracked.” FOX Sports play-by-play man Mike Joy mentioned Parrott after hearing Wallace’s remarks.
“I won’t say it, but Todd Parrott did on TV once,” Joy said.
Wallace is suddenly on a bit of a skid after finishing P4 at Martinsville and P7 at Texas. He entered Sunday’s race 11th in the points standings.
While Wallace came up short at Dover, his boss, 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin, came through with his third victory of the season. Hamlin fended off a charging Kyle Larson in the closing laps, notching his 54th career victory in the Cup Series.
“The winning moment was getting around him [Larson] on that quick restart,” Hamlin said after the race, via Performance Racing Network. “It’s similar to Texas, where I was controlling it until I wasn’t. The tide turned today.”