Last week’s playoff starter at “The Lady in the Black” literally had all the thrills and frills of a blockbuster. The Southern 500 had drama, action, and an unexpected climax. While Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin looked like it was his fifth win on the short track, a late tangle got the veteran away from that.
On the other hand, his former rival and Trackhouse Racing‘s star racer, Ross Chastain, got back to the top with a brilliant top-5 finish. Following the aftermath of the race with multiple cautions, Bubba Wallace’s spotter brutally doubled down on Team Penske‘s driver for his reckless attitude and creating chaos on the track as he drew a close parallel with the “wrecking ball,” Ross Chastain.
Bubba Wallace’s teammate slams the #2 for recreating a Ross Chastain model at Darlington
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There was action, drama, and a lot of reckless driving at Darlington. The latter part was mostly caused by Roger Penske’s driver, Austin Cindric. The # Ford driver even looked like all he wanted was carnage as he sped down the turns wide, barely missing other cars.
This, however, had to end in a wreck, and soon the driver’s karma caught up to him. Shortly after the 222nd lap of the race, Cindric was running side by side with the #54 Toyota of Ty Gibbs when he ran wide into him. The JGR rookie had no other option but to take the #2 for a ride as he bumped it into the wall and carried the Ford like Kyle Larson did to Chastain earlier this spring.
Bubba Wallace who was behind both the cars managed to slip past the tangle in time, avoiding a major wreck. Reflecting on Roger Penske’s driver’s uncontrolled racing style, Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft who was closely watching the action brutally doubled down on the 25-year-old, saying, “I don’t know what the f**k got into Austin Cindric but that there was one restart.”
— Skewcar (@Skewcar) September 4, 2023
“He just decided he was going to run wide open through 1 and 2 and like he was behind us and this like this is like he wrecked just like pulls and clears us through the middle of the corner like we were parked, I was like, what? Where? And then proceeded to driver directly into the #1- off of 2 because he obviously wasn’t going to make the corner,” said the 23XI Racing spotter as he detailed the whole thing on the DBC podcast.
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Kraft then drew Chastain into the picture, saying, “he’s going so fast in the middle, almost wrecked the #10 then 2 laps later he does the same thing like Ross(Chastain) did in the first race where he throttled up and I guess he was hoping the #54 was going to let him go and the #54 did but #54 was pretty good until that point.”
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After a brilliant campaign in NASCAR’s second-tier division, the Xfinity Series, Joe Gibbs’ offered his grandson a seat in the #54 Toyota as a full-time driver. The 20-year-old, despite his inexperience in the Cup Series, had a pretty decent season compared to fellow rookie Noah Gragson, who had a terrible season.
That'll bring out a yellow. #Southern500 pic.twitter.com/m9QNpk4D1g
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 4, 2023
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The #54 driver even came close to getting into the playoff in his first season but missed out on that front. However, if you look at his performances closely, the youngster’s inexperience is evident with back-to-back wrecks and crashes. He cannot be blamed for last week’s tangle with Cindric, if you look back to the week before that.
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Gibbs was part of the vicious wreck that sent Ryan Blaney head-first into the wall. While the situation wasn’t that critical at Darlington, with both drivers managing to get untangled to continue the race, Joe Gibbs certainly needs to review his grandson’s strategy.