“I Think Chad [Knaus] Has Lost His Mind” – Bubba Wallace Insider Calls Out Hendrick Motorsports’ 6-Digit Fiasco as He Is Joined by Kaulig Racing Spotter

NASCAR stunned the world by imposing a $400,000 combined penalty on Hendrick Motorsports last week. They deemed the NASCAR Cup Series giants guilty of modifying louvers provided by the single source supplier in the competition. However, HMS retaliated by appealing the penalty. Not only that, their Vice President Chad Knaus came out slamming the part supplier.

Interestingly, Kaulig Racing was also punished for the same offense after inspection at the Phoenix Raceway. However, instead of siding with HMS, Kaulig Racing spotter Brett Griffin and Bubba Wallace’s spotter Freddie Kraft had some harsh words to say about HMS and Chad Knaus.

Brett Griffin isn’t happy with HMS Vice President Chad Knaus’ comments

Hendrick Motorsports had a strong rebuttal after NASCAR announced the penalty. Chad Knaus came out criticizing the single-source suppliers. In his opinion, the parts are not being received as confirmed during the designing stage. Eventually, this necessitates the modification, but Knaus was disappointed that no one was questioning the suppliers.

Brett Griffin was joined by Bubba Wallace‘s spotter, Freddie Kraft, at the Door Bumper Clear podcast. Discussing the penalty and Knaus’s comments, Griffin said, “I think Chad has lost his mind and you know, you are calling out. I don’t like the way things are going in the Cup Series right now where you have a single source provider.”

He found Knaus’ words disappointing, as he further explained, “The fact is you are calling out the supplier partners and basically saying the things that we have in place don’t work. So I don’t know how this ends well. To me, this is a lot worse than what Josh Williams did this weekend, parking on the front stretch. ‘Cause Josh Williams parked it on the front stretch to say, ‘Man, you are screwing over the little guy and I ain’t taking it.'”

READ MORE – “We Are Going to Push Back”- Salty Jeff Gordon Calls $400,000 Fiasco a Question on Their “Integrity” as He Reveals Hendrick Motorsports’ Firm Stance

“Chad Knaus is saying we are Hendrick Motorsports and your supplier partners suck.” It is interesting to note how Griffin didn’t side with HMS despite being in the same boat with the penalty. Moreover, Freddie Kraft didn’t hold back one bit in criticizing HMS.

Was Hendrick Motorsports wrong in modifying the louvers?

Freddie Kraft gave an in-depth analysis of HMS’s actions. He said, “Listen, if I’m Kaulig Racing, I’m buying this issue [single-source suppliers at fault] cause Kaulig Racing has two cars out there, which means they have four louvers. They [NASCAR] took one of them from Kaulig Racing, which makes absolutely no sense.”

Now came the sucker punch from Kraft. He added, “So guess what they [NASCAR] took from Hendrick? All eight! […] So they were clearly doing something that they shouldn’t have been doing. I get that it’s a hit or miss with those single-source deals. You are gonna have that one person making all the louvers for the entire series or each manufacturer, whatever it is.”

“But you know when someone like Kaulig Racing has one of their four taken versus eight of eight going, I think there’s a difference there.”

Clearly, Wallace’s spotter is claiming Hendrick Motorsports to be the guilty party in the incident. However, he makes a very interesting point to analyze the situation. Can HMS counter this argument successfully?