“He’s Got Broad Shoulders”: Bubba Wallace Turning Resistant to Hate From NASCAR Fans Claims Insider

23XI star Bubba Wallace found himself on the receiving end of the flak after his ‘squirrels’ rant at Dover last weekend. Trying to make up for the DNF finish at Talladega, Wallace was hoping for a favorable result at the Monster Mile. However, despite running well during the event, he got caught up in a huge wreck late in the race, resulting in yet another DNF finish.

Zane Smith from No. 71 Camaro sparked the accident after getting loose in the middle lane, which sent No. 23 spinning across the track. Frustrated with the incident, Wallace, in an interview with FOX, took a shot at Smith, stating, “We’ll just continue on to Kansas, where hopefully we won’t encounter any squirrels.”

Wallace is no stranger to trolling and hate comments online. And while the salty comments at Dover could have been avoided, his spotter, Freddie Kraft feels that he can handle the hate he received after his squirrel comments.

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It wasn’t just Bubba Wallace who ended the race on a sour note. The likes of Christopher Bell from JGR and HMS star, William Byron, suffered a similar fate. But unlike these two, the 30-year-old driver just couldn’t hold himself from sending jibes at his rivals in the post-race interview.

His spotter, Freddie Kraft, knows that any potential retaliation by him in the press would result in online hate. Hence, wasn’t thrilled by his comments after the event. “Every once in a while he’ll be doing an interview, and I’ll be like, that was going well, and he’ll just say something. And I’m like, Oh, and you just know we just already get plenty of hate on social media as well and you feel the fire sometimes for him.” He shared via the DJD podcast.

Despite all the times the spotter has had to shake his head in dismay, Kraft believes that Wallace can stomach the treatment he gets online. “I see him last week, he made a comment about squirrels, and I just know where this is going on Twitter this week. So I’m like, why do you do this to yourself at times? But he’s got broad shoulders; he can carry the weight for a while.”

While Bubba’s comments may not have gone down well with the fans, his team co-owner, Denny Hamlin, appreciated his calm and composed post-race interview, knowing how frustrating it can be for a driver to have back-to-back DNF finishes. And acting like a true leader, it was not just Wallace he supported.

Was Tyler Reddick responsible for wrecking his teammate?

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Looking at the incident, it felt like Zane Smith was just left with no options after being put in the three-wide position by Tyler Reddick. The driver of the No. 45 car was making an aggressive push to get a better track position, which resulted in the No. 71 car getting loose. This engineered the whole accident that took Wallace and other drivers out of the race.

However, Hamlin wasn’t sold on the idea that Reddick, on purpose, tried to wreck his teammate. “I think it’s a 50-50 shot that he actually knew, he’s just trying to shuck the 71 out of the way who I think was multiple laps down… I don’t fault Tyler, I hate it for Bubba because he was grinding his way to a pretty good day.” He said in the recent episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast.

Sharing his thoughts on Wallace’s interview, he added, “I thought he did a great job in his interview. He actually preferenced it by saying, ‘Well, I know what I normally would say, but I guess I got to grow up, and I got the kid on the way’. So he did a really good job of lighting it up. I got faith in him; it’s just one of those weird things where everyone’s battling for their own selves, and he was just a part of collateral damage.”

Kansas Speedway is indeed a good opportunity for Bubba Wallace to score points and a good finish. Although he has been aiming for a win, a decent string of results would help him boost his morale.