A pair of NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1 drivers were involved in a huge wreck to end Stage 1 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
With three laps to go in Stage 1 of the Bank of America 400, Bubba Wallace, in the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota, and Alex Bowman, in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, made contact, with Bowman getting loose in Turn 2 and slamming into Wallace while battling for fifth.
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Wallace hit the outside wall before sliding down the backstretch, then backing into the inside wall before his car came to rest. He suffered significant rear-end damage. Wallace sat in his car for several minutes while track personnel tended to him, before exiting under his own power.
“No warning. I saw it in the last second — the 48 (Alex Bowman) come up and clip us,” Wallace said. “No hard feelings, that is just racing. I was starting to drop, and it gets into a tight spot. To get on pit road smooth, we wanted to stay in front of him. He just got loose and got us. The first hit wiped our brakes out. The second hit got me good. But we are good. Still got nine fingers and nine toes (laughter), so we are fine.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Bowman said. “I had run down there a lot and been really tight on exit, and yeah, as soon as I touched the throttle, it snapped, and it really, obviously, caught me off guard, and I overcorrected, and just did a [expletive] job, and we ruined some guys’ days. So I hate that for William and Bubba. It’s on me. Should be better than that. But yeah, just not really sure why it snapped as bad as it did. We had been down there so much and been really tight on exit, but should have been ahead of it better than that.”
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William Byron, another Chaser, was also involved in the wreck, his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy receiving right-front damage.
“It looks like the No. 48 (Alex Bowman) just got loose and overcorrected it into the wall,” Byron said. “I was running the top, and I lifted right away, but I couldn’t get low enough because he kind of came back off the wall. I hate it for this No. 24 Valvoline Blood Cancer United Chevrolet team. We had a top-five run going, so it’s just unfortunate.”
All three drivers saw their day end following the incident, with Wallace, Bowman and Byron scored 37th, 38th and 39th, respectively. They were all evaluated and released from the infield care center.
Wallace entered Charlotte action 10th in The Chase standings, 137 markers behind points leader Kyle Larson. Byron ranked 12th in points entering Sunday’s race, 160 points behind the leader.
This story will be updated.