American racing driver Bubba Wallace has broken his silence and claimed he “did nothing wrong” after the penalty at EchoPark speedway pushed his position to 29, despite finishing in 2nd place in the NASCAR race on Monday (July 13).
Wallace made a bold move on the very last lap and swung left on the backstretch and dove under two other drivers, Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney. This decision by the 32-year-old put the three cars side by side, racing to secure first place and the cars remained that way until the finish line.
Later, NASCAR reviewed the footage and determined that Wallace had violated the yellow line rule for his action. He is penalized and demoted from 2nd to 29th place. It is pertinent to note that in-race penalties applied by NASCAR officials are final and cannot be appealed.
Wallace responded to the penalty by saying, “It says move your position forward, which I didn’t do,” adding that he stayed in third place the entire time and was braking hard to avoid moving up illegally.
He added: “That move should have propelled me into the lead, and it didn’t because I knew it was wrong. I stayed third from the entry into Turn 3 until 50 meters.”
NASCAR’s rules cover this exact situation for superspeedway racing. It indicates that a driver is penalized if he goes below the yellow line to improve his position. It also says a driver can be penalized if they push another car below the line to help themselves.
NASCAR ruled that Wallace’s decision helped him move up one spot, moving from third to second. It was enough to trigger the penalty.
