Denny Hamlin Triggers Struggling Bubba Wallace’s Worst Nightmare Amidst Failure to Match Kyle Larson’s Worries

Bubba Wallace was already having a rough day, and things just went from bad to worse, thanks to his own boss, Denny Hamlin. Bubba had been griping about his car’s inconsistency, and then, to top it off, he found himself in the middle of a wreck he had no business being in.

During the final stage with 84 laps to go—while Kyle Busch was leading, barely ahead of Kyle Larson—chaos broke out on the backstretch. There was a crash involving Bubba Wallace, Michael McDowell, and Austin Cindric, with Cindric seemingly taking the hardest hit, which triggered yet another caution.

Bubba Wallace’s car took a beating, but he still escaped DNF

With less than 100 laps to go, Denny Hamlin was fresh out of the Stage 1 win, but not without some drama. He had to back off the gas after a tweak to his car changed his handling. The shuffle affected all the drivers nearby. As Joey Logano and Christopher Bell tried to make their moves, Hamlin found himself sandwiched between them.

Cindric tried to squeeze through a narrow gap between Hamlin and the wall, but Bell nudged Hamlin, who then pushed Cindric into the wall. This sent Cindric spinning, and he ended up dragging both Wallace and McDowell into the mess. Both Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell were just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it’s been a tough stretch for both drivers. Wallace has been in a wreck for four weeks straight, while McDowell was looking to break a streak of three consecutive DNFs. Cindric managed to limp his car back to Pit Road, but his day was over.

Luckily for Bubba Wallace, his car wasn’t too badly damaged. He got back in the race after the restart and pushed through to finish in P17 place by the race’s end. But even before that, Wallace was griping about his car not running right. Tyler Reddick’s ride didn’t seem to have much zip either. So, were the 23XI Racing cars off their game at Kansas?

Bubba Wallace didn’t hold back when he called out his 23XI Racing team over the car’s performance

Bubba has had a decent run at Kansas in the past, including three top-10 finishes in his last 12 starts, a victory in 2022, and a 10th place last spring. He even finished a fourth place last year. With Kansas being a key track in the playoffs, he was trying to keep a positive outlook. However, after dismal finishes of P36 at Talladega and P32 at Dover, and abrading together only seven points from those races, his patience was wearing thin. It was even more frustrating for him since this was a stark contrast to the 51 points he earned from a fourth-place finish at Martinsville and the 40 points from coming in seventh at Texas just weeks before. Kansas was meant to be where he turned things around.

His frustration hit a peak at Kansas when he blasted the team over the radio, saying, “So inconsistent, I don’t know what to do… you know what we talked about at the shop? Get this m*f***down.” He seemingly ripped into his team for not giving him a car he could rely on. And it seems he wasn’t the only one having a tough time; his teammate Tyler Reddick was struggling too.

Reddick, starting in 15th, only managed to finish 15th and 8th in the first two stages. Meanwhile, Wallace, after qualifying 23rd, could only climb to 18th and 17th in the first two stages. Clearly, there was something off with the 23XI cars at Kansas.