“Most Hated Driver” Bubba Wallace Receives Hostile Reception Upon Return After Race Ban and Million Dollar Loss For Kyle Larson Blowup

Sunday afternoon was expected to have two talking points at Martinsville Speedway. The first was the most obvious – who goes through to the grid for next week’s Championship 4 race in Phoenix. The other was the return of Bubba Wallace from his one-race suspension.

Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace were involved in a highly publicized incident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Wallace had seemingly wrecked Larson in retaliation, after what he thought was an attempt to push him into the walls from Larson. Resultantly both drivers spun out of the race but Wallace didn’t stop there.

He got up close and personal and made a few quick swings at his rival before they were separated by the personnel around them. Consequently, he was handed a one-race suspension which saw him sit out the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway; Larson on the other hand won the race.

As Bubba made his return at Martinsville Speedway, there were loud and clear boos of disapproval from the 45,000-odd fans present. Jeff Gluck, The Athletics’ motorsports journalist, posted a video of Bubba Wallace’s reception at Martinsville on his Twitter account. He wrote alongside “Most boos in driver intros: Bubba Wallace, and it wasn’t very close (way more than Kyle Busch and Ty Gibbs).”

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While boos for the 29-year-old driver are not a new thing, it is believed that a number of those could be for him flying off the handle in Las Vegas. His behavior was obviously unacceptable but so is this kind of reaction.

NASCAR Twitter has its take on the boos for Bubba Wallace

Following Jeff Gluck’s post, a number of keen watchers of the sport had their take on the incident. The majority opinion on the microblogging website seems to be against Bubba Wallace and for the booing.

There was a handful who tried to defend the driver.

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In Bubba’s case, there always will be the race angle at play – some of the boos might have been for that reason. But it would be hard to ignore Las Vegas’ effect on fans.