Somewhere in the chaos of the Coca-Cola 600, Bubba Wallace thought he saw AJ Allmendinger turn reckless and nearly take race winner Daniel Suarez out of the race. After AJ heard what his friend had to say, however, he was left absolutely perplexed.

A reporter brought up Wallace’s allegations in the buildup to the Cracker Barrel 400 on Sunday, and Allmendinger’s first words were “What”.

Wallace had basically gone on the Racin’ With the Boys podcast and said, “I saw it this weekend… The seven, Suarez, who won, just ran AJ like a —-head, and AJ drove it wide open into one so far he bottomed out and went all the way to the wall.”

Allmendinger, however, had no clue what Wallace was talking about and said, “Bubba knows more than I do. So maybe he knows what’s going on with everybody’s race…. No, I had no problems with anybody last week besides me.”

It was a chaotic race for sure, with 12 caution flags, dozens of lead changes among 13 different drivers, and an early finish thanks to the stormy weather. Amidst it all, Allmendinger was frustrated with himself and his car. He started the race and was falling down the pack as the race progressed, with hopes of a top-10 gone by the time it was stage 3. That’s it. There was no more backstory there.

“I honestly have no idea what Bubba’s talking about. I love Bubba, but it’s not shocking that he likes to talk. And no, I was only mad at myself and my racecar,” the Kaulig Racing driver said, as seen in a now-deleted video on social platform X.

There’s never really been a major rivalry between Allmendinger and Suarez. While the two road-course specialists have crossed paths in the midfield over the years, Suarez’s more notable feuds have involved drivers like Ross Chastain, while Allmendinger’s run-ins have been with drivers such as Riley Herbst. Not each other.

What Bubba described as a near-catastrophic moment, Allmendinger either remembers very differently or simply doesn’t think it is worth discussing. He made that much clear.

How Suárez Actually Pulled Off His Coca-Cola 600 Win

Suárez was not one of the favorites to win the 2026 Coca-Cola 600. Kyle Larson started 18th and carved his way through the field to win Stage 1. Denny Hamlin won Stage 2 by more than four seconds, leading a 1-2-3 sweep for the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers. Christopher Bell served two pit-road penalties during the race and still came back to win Stage 3 and Toyota was running away with it.

Then came the thunderstorm.

Suárez was running 13th when Lap 354 arrived. Lightning struck six miles from the speedway, forcing NASCAR to throw the caution. Crew chief Ryan Sparks told him to take two tires while everyone else took four. A four-tire stop typically takes around 12 seconds. Suárez’s stop took only five or six. He gained 13 positions and restarted at the front.

But getting the lead was only half the battle. He still had to hold off some of the fastest cars on the track. With older left-side tires, he faced two restarts with Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin right behind him on fresh rubber.

Suárez blocked, defended, and never gave either driver a clean run. He led all of the final 17 laps before rain arrived on Lap 373 and never let up. At 11:25 p.m., NASCAR made the race official, 27 laps short of its scheduled distance, which meant Suárez was the winner that night.

It was a huge upset. At Charlotte Motor Speedway, dominance is usually what wins races. Consider two of the most successful active drivers at the track, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson, who have won three times apiece there. Truex’s 2016 victory saw him lead 392 of 400 laps. Larson’s 2021 win was nearly as dominant, as he led 327 laps and swept all three stages.

Suárez, meanwhile, led just 17 laps. While that made for a great underdog story, it didn’t sit well with runner-up Denny Hamlin.

Speaking on his podcast after the race, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver argued that NASCAR should have started the event earlier, given that officials already knew bad weather could become a factor later in the evening. Had that happened, the remaining 27 laps might have been completed, and Hamlin believed he would have had a chance to race for the win.

“Man, I wish there was a way we just moved everything up an hour, or, you know, not having as long of cautions for stages and just… If we could just tidy that up just a little bit,” he said.