HAMPTON, Ga. — It appeared Bubba Wallace was a few feet away from winning the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway Sunday night (July 12).
After recovering from an earlier spin, the 23XI Racing driver was inside of Ryan Blaney and Carson Hocevar for the last half of the final lap, with Blaney narrowly coming out on top. But shortly after the race had ended and the drivers had climbed from their cars, NASCAR assessed Wallace a penalty for advancing his position while below the double-yellow line. That penalty dropped the No. 23 car to the end of the lead lap, in 29th position.
“We’re gonna fight it,” Wallace said. “I mean, did I advance my position? … You’ve seen the race.”
The penalty came because on the backstretch of the final lap, Wallace received a push from Christopher Bell that propelled his car forward. But it also got his car out of control, causing him to drift below the double-yellow line, which is out of bounds on drafting tracks. By the time Wallace got back on the racing surface, he was three-wide for the lead. But Wallace was adamant that he never took the lead as a result of going down there.
“It [the rule] says “advancing your position,” which I did not do,” Wallace said. “I stayed third, and I was all over the brakes to make sure I did not advance. As soon as I turned, I’m like, ‘I’m going to wreck,’ and got on the brakes and kept it underneath me and still ended up side by side.
“That move should have propelled us to the lead, and it didn’t because I knew it was wrong, because my car did not like that move. So we’ll see what we can do, but I did not advance my position. I stayed third from entry of [turn] 3, all the way until 50 yards away [from the finish line when No.] 54 [Ty Gibbs] gave us a shot.”
Wallace and his team did protest the penalty afterward, spending 31 minutes in the NASCAR hauler as the footage was reviewed. But NASCAR did not go back on its original decision, and 23XI can’t appeal the decision past the post-race review period.
“A penalty’s a penalty,” Wallace said.
Whether Wallace was at fault or not, the penalty wiped out what would’ve been an impressive comeback by the 32-year-old. After starting the race in 22nd, he climbed to 10th by the end of the first stage. He was running in fifth entering turn 4 of stage two’s final lap when he moved down in front of Gibbs. Contact between the two ensued, which sent the No. 23 car spinning through the frontstretch grass.
After the race, Wallace and Gibbs had a confrontation about the incident.
“I just said ‘lift,'” Wallace said. “I said, ‘There’s an opportunity to give, and you didn’t.’ And he was like, ‘Well, don’t block me.’ And it’s like, bro, you hit me square in the bumper, right? The block was well ahead. You’ve seen it coming. We’ll be all right.”
Gibbs didn’t quite see the incident as going down the way Wallace described and seemed to take issue with his Toyota teammate’s way of handling the post-race conversation.
“I went to tell him sorry because he cleared himself and then [he] unfortunately showed a lot of disrespect,” Gibbs said. “But I don’t know, yeah, seems like it didn’t really work out for him, but I just tried to help him out there at the end, push him to win, but it didn’t happen.”
Still, Wallace spent the race’s final 60 laps rallying from the spin, even leading 10 laps in the final stage and having moments where it looked like he may win his first NASCAR Cup Series race of 2026. He at least should have scored his third top five in the past six races, but that comeback was wiped out all in an instant once Wallace chased his car down the track.
“It’s a bummer,” Wallace said. “I really hate it for the guys. It’s a nice rebound from getting spun there. It’s Atlanta. It’s another race for us. [We] just continue on.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
I’m far from a Wallace fan, but that penalty was pretty weak. Anyone could see that he did not advance his position. He didn’t even nudge ahead of the car that was beside him, so how did he “advance his position”?
He may not have technically advanced his position, but he did better his position. Before he was behind the two leaders, after he was even with them and made it three wide.
I agree with Bill B, that’s how I see it too. He went from behind, to along side.
This is such a messy rule, because “don’t advance your position” leaves the door wide open for drivers to go below the yellow line then become a roadblock as they try to hold their place the way Wallace did. NASCAR needs to make this more easily enforceable by telling the drivers exactly how to back off, such as, “If you go below the yellow line of your own volition (as in not as a result of a block or contact from another car) you must drop to the end of your current lap within the next 2 passes of the starter’s stand,” or something to that effect. That would give the driver time to safely make the move backwards. They could even dictate how many places the driver has to give up before starting to move forward again, such as losing 10 places within the next two laps, or else it’s a pass-through penalty. That would make it clear what has to happen for a driver to avoid the full penalty.
Even Dale Jr said “that’s going to be a penalty” during the broadcast.
Dale (and Letarte too) also like to create fake drama that isn’t necessarily there. The whole Hocevar thing they keep pushing is getting ridiculous.
Wallace was running in 3rd place. He made a huge move to the left with a ton of momentum (slingshot engaged) and drove well over the line. Bubba never lost that momentum when he came back up on the track. He passed Hocevar (2nd) and Blaney (1st) going into Turn 3. That’s where I see the problem and why he was penalized.
If Bubba stayed in 3rd behind Hocevar, maybe there wouldn’t have been a penalty. Bubba had such a big run he probably would have caused a huge wreck trying to stay behind Hocevar. Sucks for Bubba, but it was exciting to watch.
Stupid that people are debating such an obvious penalty
Let’s just face it: nothing is ever Wallace’s fault. We should recognize that by now. Would he like some cheese with that whine?
Bubba was behind the car, went below the line and was ahead of the car at the line. To me, that means he passed him.
Yeah, I don’t get the debate, other than NASCAR should probably change their wording to something similar to F1, “leaving the track and gaining a competitive advantage”, which replays show Wallace did.