Heated rivalries, on-track tussles, and post-race brawls have been a feature of NASCAR racing for a long time. However, not every incident or altercation gets out in public, and something similar happened in the case of Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace. The friction between the two drivers started during the 2018, Daytona 500, and that continued to boil over in the upcoming race at Atlanta.

Hamlin isn’t one of the drivers who would back out of a challenge. Back in the day, Bubba Wallace challenged him to retaliate via text messages. Little was known about this skirmish until Denny Hamlin shed light on it while speaking with Jeff Gluck. Apparently, one of them had their shirt ripped off due to the physical altercation, and going by Hamlin’s words, it seems like he wasn’t on the receiving end of things.

What sparked the tension between the two drivers?

Denny Hamlin had a shot at winning the 2018 Daytona 500 race. On the white flag run, Aric Almirola was unable to hold onto his lead and crashed into the outside fence. Austin Dillon, who was leading the charge of the field, snagged a win. However, Hamlin and Wallace were tussling behind for a runner-up finish and eventually ended up wrecking each other.

The two exchanged texts following their tussle on the racetrack. Hamlin recalls the incident in a conversation with Jeff Gluck on his special 12-question segment. “There was just some simple texts exchanged that somewhat fired me up. The challenge was brought to me that, “What are you going to do about it?” … “OK, I’ll be right over.” (Laughs) What happened after that is history, but I felt like we almost needed to get that out of our system at some point.”

Not getting into the details of the altercation, Hamlin also shared the story behind the ripped shirt in the motorhome lot. “The mistake was made by the motorhome drivers and/or the friends who allowed us to go into the bus by ourselves after the challenge was dropped. The only way that they got alerted to it was the bus was rocking. (Laughs) And everyone just came busting in the front door.”

However, this one-off incident didn’t sour their relationship, as Denny Hamlin went on to build his new NASCAR team with Bubba Wallace as the lead driver. Given how quickly 23XI Racing and Wallace have progressed, it’s fair to say that both of them have buried the hatchet. But it seems like the driver of the No. 23 Toyota Camry keeps running into more trouble with other drivers.

Bubba Wallace was involved in yet another mystery fight with Aric Almirola

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After being punished by NASCAR for his actions against Kyle Larson in Las Vegas, Wallace has kept himself away from the chaos. But he found himself in the center of a physical altercation, this time with retired Cup Series star Aric Almirola. Like the incident with Hamlin, the details of this incident have been kept under wraps.

This incident happened during the TRD driver’s meeting, and Almirola, who is back at JGR in the Xfinity Series, was also in attendance. Not much is known about what happened behind the scenes, but Almirola was suspended for multiple races in the Xfinity Series by JGR. Even the 23XI Racing star was tight-lipped when asked about his altercation with the veteran driver.

“They don’t want me to get into the details; keep some people’s image good. I think I said enough at Charlotte last year. All in all, life is good for me. That s**t happened over a month ago, and a lot of good has come to me, and that’s what I’m focused on.” Wallace said this after the qualifying rounds at Nashville Superspeedway.

Bubba Wallace will be back in action this weekend at the Michigan International Speedway. With three races to go in the regular season, he is on the bubble, trying his best to secure his place in the playoffs.