Bubba Wallace has refused to go public about his altercation with former Stewart-Haas Racing driver Aric Almirola. The incident occurred during a meeting between the Toyota drivers the day before this year’s BetMGM 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Almirola retired from full-time racing in 2022 but returned to the Xfinity Series as a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing. His most recent win came at Martinsville, where he held off teammate Chandler Smith and JR Motorsports driver Sam Mayer on an overtime restart on his way to victory lane. Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace will drive for 23XI Racing, a team with close ties to Joe Gibbs Racing. Previous reports from NBC Sports said 23XI Racing receives chassis and other technical support from Joe Gibbs Racing. As a result, Wallace and Almirola attended a meeting last month.
Prominent journalist Bob Pockrass interviewed Bubba Wallace and asked him about the incident. However, Wallace declined to go into details, saying:
“To protect the image of some people, they don’t want me to go into details. I think I said enough at Charlotte last year. Oh no, life is good for me. This whole thing happened over a month ago. I’ve been through a lot of good things, so I’m focused on that. I’m focused on getting things back to normal. There’s no news on what happened then. After a heated exchange, Almirola was seen shoving Bubba Wallace, who said:
“This is what happens when you walk around with two faces.”
It was reportedly Almirola who started the fight. As a result, the 40-year-old was suspended and hasn’t raced since Memorial Day weekend. Bubba Wallace is currently 15th in the NASCAR Cup Series with 417 points. He has three top-five finishes and five top-10 finishes and is just 13 points away from the 2024 playoff cutoff.
Bubba Wallace’s boss speaks out about the incident
For Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI Racing and full-time driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, the whole altercation between Almirola and Wallace was just hearsay. In an interview published by NASCAR, the 54-time champion said he would not comment on the matter because he was not there when it happened. “I have no comment because I was not there at the time,” Hamlin said. “So, I don’t know what happened. In my opinion, this is all hearsay.
Hamlin also added that Joe Gibbs Racing has the final say in such matters. The veteran racer did not want to delve too deeply into the matter, saying:
“I left it up to Joe Gibbs Racing in 23XI and they did what they thought was right. I didn’t want to get too involved in personal matters either, so I don’t know the details and I still don’t know them now.”
For Sunday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway, Denny Hamlin took pole position with a top speed of 160.354 mph. Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace qualified 24th. Aric Almirola is scheduled to compete in the Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 20.
