“5 just tried to f—— force middle there.” Bubba Wallace’s spotter audibly lost his temper after the carnage on last Saturday’s race. The No. 23 pit crew member had reasons to relax, as Wallace was already in the playoffs by way of a thrilling Brickyard 400 victory. However, his duties as a 23XI Racing employee were not done, as Wallace’s teammate was at risk of losing this season’s shot. What resulted was a controversial incident, which the insider owned up to, countering his initial fury at the No. 5.

Ryan Blaney won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in grand style, making a late-race dash from 13th to 1st. What was more remarkable was overcoming his history of superspeedway wrecks. Yet while Blaney put to rest his 6-race wreck-riddled streak on drafting tracks, his rivals continued theirs. And it was mainly because of Bubba Wallace and his team.

Bubba Wallace’s spotter dissects his misadventure

Starting off in 27th place, the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota faced mishaps at Daytona. Akin to his long string of misfortunes this year, Tyler Reddick got caught with Todd Gilliland’s car on lap 18. As a result, Reddick nosed into the inside wall, but was able to continue after repairs. However, it gave Alex Bowman hope.

Both winless drivers were in a tight face-off to enter the playoffs in case Daytona had a new winner. But while Bowman hoped to overcome his 29-point deficit over Reddick, the latter’s 23XI Racing colleague was cooking something. Freddie Kraft, Bubba Wallace’s spotter, was invested in pulling Reddick into the playoffs by any means.

Unfortunately, that open-ended approach led to the biggest wreck of the day. On lap 27, Bubba Wallace entangled with Joey Logano and Kyle Busch, with Kyle Larson tagging him from behind. In total, a dozen cars were involved in this carnage. Freddie Kraft owned up to being the origin of this mess, and he flatly laid out his reasons in a ‘Door, Bumper, Clear’ episode.

He said, “We had to get Reddick in the playoffs…Once I saw Reddick wreck, I was like, if we can just clear him all the way to the bottom while there’s two cars beneath us, I think we had a good chance we collect Bowman and get this deal done.”

Although fans initially thought that Kyle Larson set off the carnage, Freddie Kraft cleared the air. He confessed that there was a shortcoming in letting Bubba Wallace know about his tricky surroundings.

“What I’m doing off of 4 is telling Bubba, ‘Pick up the 5 in the mirror, that’s how we’re gonna get the best run down the front straightaway.’ I f—– up by not telling Bubba we were three-wide…We were too tight to the other guys because Logano comes up on 4…the 8 plugs the bottom.” He added, “If there’s anybody to blame, it’s me, for not getting out that we were three-wide already…Bubba knew that Logano was on his quarter-panel, but he probably didn’t know the 8 was down there, which was my fault.”

Even Bubba Wallace admitted to messing up in this endeavor. “I hate that. I’ll take the blame for it, unfortunately. Just a crap deal,” he said. 23XI Racing team owner, Denny Hamlin, who was also involved in the wreck, also blamed Wallace and Kraft. “It looked like to me that Bubba just squeezed those two guys below him down…You could just see that they’re there, two cars on the inside. “I don’t know what Freddie was calling.” 

As the Daytona race was one to forget, Bubba Wallace is looking ahead to the future. Yet he questioned the position of one upcoming race.

The numbers say otherwise

This year, NASCAR’s Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway was a resounding success. NASCAR and Warner Bros. Discovery earned 2.009 million average viewers for the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 race. What is more, the Monster Mile was throbbing with fans, who cheered loudly from the grandstands. So, NASCAR picking Dover for the non-points All-Star Race puzzled many people.

Denny Hamlin pointed out that Dover fits long, grinding races. This counters the short exhibition sprints that have been typical of North Wilkesboro’s All-Star exhibition. What is more, Dover does not have permanent lighting, meaning temporary fixtures would be necessary to run the All-Star event at night.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. agreed with these points, also questioning NASCAR’s Dover switch. Bubba Wallace also jumped aboard this skeptical group, expressing his qualms.

He told Frontstretch recently, “Really interested in Dover. I think Dover is probably a hot topic for everybody. Really interested in the long-term game plan…I’m not saying that Dover is going to be there for the long term, but like, is this a play to like… I think it was a really good fan turnout, right? For the past race here. Really good fan turnout, but previous to that, it’s kind of been okay. The racing product is (shrugs)… So, I’m just wondering if this is like Dover is going to take the bullet for this year to find something. That’s the way I’m looking at it.”

As Bubba Wallace navigates the path to the playoffs, Daytona will remain a chip on his shoulder. Hopefully, his spotter’s admission will help ease the pain of rivals.