It didn’t take long for tempers to flare and paint to be traded on All-Star night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
On Lap 17, Michael McDowell turned left and sent Bubba Wallace‘s No. 43 Chevrolet hard into the outside wall. McDowell himself then spun across the nose of William Byron.
McDowell drew the pole for the race-in event, leading for a short time before he began to fall back. While racing hard with Wallace and William Byron, Wallace moved McDowell. McDowell took issue with the bump, turning Wallace driver’s-side into the outside wall.
“Just disrespect,” Wallace said in an interview. “…When you get hooked [in the] right rear into the wall, it’s… I don’t even need to see a replay. Look at that sh…. yeah, wow. People say [he’s] one of the nicest guys in the garage, can’t wait for the God-fearing text that he’s going to send me about preaching and praising respect. What a joke he is.”
"What a joke he is." @BubbaWallace on @Mc_Driver. pic.twitter.com/3l2RIloWqH
— NASCAR Alerts (@NASCAR_Alerts) July 15, 2020
McDowell returned to the track with minor damage, but Wallace’s hopes of making the All-Star Race were dashed with a destroyed car.
Wallace then took his damaged back bumper and dropped it at McDowell’s trailer, further expressing his frustration.
.@BubbaWallace took the bumper of his wrecked #43 car and dropped it a the hauler door of @Mc_Driver.
Not a happy driver.
PC: @PaulEdSutton, @peterstratta #NASCAR #AllStarOpen pic.twitter.com/G4fVWQ3Xid
— Noah Lewis (NASCAR Writer) (@Noah_Lewis1) July 15, 2020
It appeared that all was not well between the teams later on in the race, too.
Keep an eye on the 43 and 34 teams after this race. Seen several 43 team crew members continuing to walk by the 34 hauler every few minutes. Could get interesting. Maybe not though. #NASCAR
— DannyBTalks (Daniel Baldwin) (@DannyBTalks) July 15, 2020
As for the event itself, Aric Almirola, Byron and Matt DiBenedetto won Stages 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Clint Bowyer advanced to the main event by virtue of the fan vote.
Neither Wallace nor McDowell advanced to the 2020 All-Star Race.
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek's Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.