Bubba Wallace comments on his P4 finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway
Bubba Wallace seriously earned his fourth-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Monday. Though he started the race in seventh, he found himself in the middle of the pack for a good chunk of the race and had a less-than-ideal pit location.
Still, Wallace overcame an average running position of 15.7 to claim a top-five finish for the 23XI Racing team. But the driver was quick to give credit to his entire crew for the productive run at the Coca-Cola 600.
“What a day. Holy cow,” Wallace said, per Racer.com. “Back and forth, back and forth, and the car wasn’t really that great all night. The top was so dominant on restarts, and we just knew we had to get up there, and I don’t know exactly where we lined up on that last one, 16th or 18th.
“I’m just proud of the team; thankful for giving me a car to be able to do that, but we still got a lot of work to do. But we continue to throw our name in the hat and we’re there. We’re becoming a factor. So, just have to keep going.”
Because of inclement weather, it turned out to be a long weekend at Charlotte for NASCAR. But it paid off for Wallace and his crew.
“We survived 600 miles,” he said. “Redemption from last year. So, onto St. Louis.”
Bubba Wallace addresses dust-up with Aric Almirola
It wasn’t all great for Wallace during the Coca-Cola 600 on Monday. The driver found himself in a brief shoving match with fellow driver Aric Almirola during a red flag delay at one point.
The two drivers exchanged words during the break while on pit road. Almirola then shoved Wallace before others separated the two.
“Yeah, we were just frustrated on how we raced each other,” Wallace said, per NBC Sports. “We were in Stage 2 of the Coke 600. I finished fourth and that’s a good day for our team.”
That’s the generic version of what happened on Monday. Almirola was willing to provide a few more details, explaining why he shoved Wallace.
“I felt like I raced him clean and he was racing me dirty. I let him go and then he shot me the bird,” Almirola told Alan Cavanna of Performance Racing Network. “So I went to ask him why he shot the bird and he started mouthing off and cussing me. I wasn’t gonna have that.”
Almirola finished the Coca-Cola 600 in 25th place.