Bubba Wallace’s Spotter Outlines NASCAR’s “Fundamental Problem” as He Picks Sides in Talladega DVP Muck-Up

No amount of cover-up seems to be working. After this year’s Bristol spectacle, NASCAR found a window of opportunity to appease fans and drivers. As neither revamping the Next Gen car nor raising horsepower were viable options, tire wear looked like the way out. But that project fell through, and further faults emerged with the Next Gen model as drivers like Ryan Blaney and Josh Berry fumbled. And Bubba Wallace’s spotter knows exactly where the issue lies.

NASCAR invalidated Berry’s Kansas run with a controversial ruling, drawing the ire of both the race teams and fans. However, even that executive decision deflated on Sunday as officials countered their own rule. This has led them back to square one, or the Next-Gen debacle.

Bubba Wallace’s spotter peels off the layers

Well, eventually bandaids are not the permanent cure, right? Last week, Josh Berry faced an ejection from Kansas when an incident left him with flat tires. NASCAR used the Damaged Vehicle Policy on him, just as it used it on Ryan Blaney in Watkins Glen. Fast forward to Sunday, officials found themselves in a fix. The largest “Big One” unfolded at Talladega Superspeedway, catching 20+ cars in the melee. NASCAR towed cars back to the pit road, including those of playoff drivers Chase Briscoe and Chase Elliott. It clearly contradicted its own rule imposed on Berry last week.

An uproar ensued from the garage, and Bubba Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft, chimed in with his take. He said in a recent ‘Door, Bumper, Clear’ video, “They said we’re gonna look at it in the off-season…Well, that was a very short off-season because it was about 6 days maybe, before we completely did a 180…If the car spins and it has flats, he’s gonna get towed back and be able to change it. But if he has contact and is involved with a crash, he’s out of the race essentially. Well, here comes the 9 and the 14 on the tow truck, wrecked! …But they were able to continue in the race.”

But then Bubba Wallace‘s insider peeled off this layer of protection and revealed the inner problem. NASCAR’s Next-Gen car is the root cause of causing these wrecks in the first place. “At the end of the day, the fundamental problem is the car. It’s not so much the policy for me…because if the car could move when you have flat tires, we wouldn’t have this problem. There wouldn’t be 25 cars sitting on the apron over there, stuck because they’re all beached on the ground…So the main thing we should focus on…is how to get these cars off the ground.” Even Denny Hamlin’s crew chief cited the faulty car as the culprit.

However, since revamping the Next Gen car would take time, for now, NASCAR is trying to fix its mess. After its inconsistent ruling at Talladega, an executive ate humble pie.

NASCAR official takes back its words

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The first time the Damaged Vehicle Policy peeked into the scene, there was not much uproar. Ryan Blaney went into a rage about unfair racing, but soon calmed down when he learned about the rule. However, the same issue recurred in Kansas, and the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing crew chief bashed NASCAR. Officials tried to explain the rule after that but still promised to revise it in the off-season. However, Talladega’s events may have made that revision essential, as a huge discrepancy arose. And NASCAR had to eat humble pie, admitting that they made a mistake.

Elton Sawyer, Senior VP of Competition, expanded on the matter post-race in Talladega. “On the heels of last week at Kansas, our goal was never to put good cars out of the race. Last week, as we got looking at that and digesting it, maybe we should’ve made a different call last week. As we went into Talladega, we wanted to make sure we aired on the side of the competitors. We didn’t anticipate seeing 25 cars down there, some of them in the grass, high-sided, weren’t sure why they couldn’t continue. That’s why we made the decision to tow the No. 2 to pit road. The No. 9 and No. 14 both met minimum speed, so we felt like that was the right call at that time. We will take a much deeper dive into this in the offseason.”

With a lot of debate ensuing around the DVP, let us see what NASCAR does to handle the situation. Hopefully, they would cater to the benefit of the drivers.