Bubba Wallace Thrown in the Mix as He Triggers a Feud With His Supposedly Aggressive Move at Phoenix

Bubba Wallace ended up in 16th place at Phoenix, even though he’s been knocking on the door of the top-5 in two of the last three Cup races. He gave it everything he had, clearly getting worked up over trying to make his way past other drivers, but that short-track package just wasn’t doing him any favors.

At the end of Stage 1, Wallace couldn’t hold back his frustration over the radio, complaining about how tough it was to overtake at Phoenix. On top of that, he brushed up against #14, causing both Eric Jones and Chase Briscoe to lose their stride. The incident sparked a bit of chat on the DBC podcast, where Wallace’s spotter jumped in to back up #23 over the move.

While Eric Jones and Chase Briscoe blamed each other, was it Bubba Wallace’s fault in the first place?

The whole situation between Eric Jones and Chase Briscoe seemed like a classic case of he-said, she-said, but when you dig a bit deeper, it turns out Bubba Wallace might have stirred the pot. TJ Majors shed some light on this on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, pointing out, “Let’s get this right. They left the whole, they’re already three wide. Bubba makes it four wide.”

Freddie Kraft, who’s got Bubba Wallace’s back as his spotter, jumped in to defend him, asking, “Is there is there a rule against making it for a while? – No, I mean, it’s hard to pass at Phoenix. You make your own luck,” he argued. “If there was a rule against making a four wide let me know because I was four wide,” Kraft added. 

But what exactly went down? Erik Jones was cruising towards a strong finish, sitting pretty in eighth with merely 92 laps to go after the race’s final restart. Little did he know, chaos was about to unfold. The field fanned out, going three and four cars wide, and Jones ended up caught in a tight spot between Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace.

The space between them kept shrinking as they dove into turns 1 and 2. That’s when Briscoe’s #14 Ford nudged Wallace’s Toyota, sending the latter careening into Jones. Jones’s #43 Toyota then smacked into the wall, killing his race momentum in an instant. After the dust settled, Jones was left wrestling with a bent-up car for the rest of the race. Understandably ticked off by the sudden downturn, Jones pointed fingers at Briscoe, who was just as baffled by the whole mess.

Chase Briscoe isn’t backing down this time

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Jones, miffed by the race’s turn for the worse, pointed fingers at Briscoe, who was left scratching his head over the situation. Briscoe, speaking up, was like, “I don’t know what I did, I know we were four wide at one point and I got super tight and got into him I think, but I don’t know if that’s the part he’s mad about. If he calls me, I’ll gladly answer.” 

However, reflecting on a tough 2023, the driver also hinted he’s not backing down this season: “The guys that run up front are the guys that are the most aggressive and I’m going back to those ways so I don’t know what part he is mad about, I know that were four wide at one point over there and it got really tight and he got wrecked the next lap by the guy right behind me so, yeah, I’ll have to go back and watch it.”

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Jones, aiming for a top-10 and ending up in the pits seven laps down, was beyond frustrated, talking about how Briscoe kept bottlenecking him, forcing them four-wide because he was lagging.

Imagine their surprise to find out the whole mess reportedly kicked off with Wallace deciding to go four-wide, at least according to many industry insiders. But, do you think Wallace’s move might have triggered the mishap? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!