The past couple of weeks have been filled with chatter about penalties in sport. From FIFA and the not-red card to on-track retaliation in NASCAR, there has been inconsistency in imposing penalties on the athletes.

Intentional wrecking is something the stock car racing series takes a dim view of. That was evident after the Texas incident between Ryan Precce and Ty Gibbs in April. NASCAR handed the former a $50,000 fine and docked 25 points for intentionally wrecking his rival. Cut to Chicagoland last weekend, a similar wreck between SVG and Austin Hill rebirthed the conversation. And that happened because NASCAR couldn’t conclude that either SVG’s action or Hill’s payback a lap later was “100% intentional and penalty-worthy.”

Both drivers walked free. Now, former NASCAR driver-turned-analyst Kenny Wallace has reacted to this penalty chatter and intentional wrecking by using the example of the late Dale Earnhardt.

Kenny Wallace ‘wants to laugh so bad’ over NASCAR penalty discussion

On Thursday morning’s edition of “Coffee with Kenny” on X, Wallace addressed this matter, saying:

“They say there’s this new thing going on. I want to laugh so bad. What they’re doing now is, when you spin somebody out nowadays, you don’t key the button, don’t say nothing. Ryan Preece has got a T-shirt out; it says, ‘Don’t hit the button.’ Friends, we’ve been doing that forever. I even saw Dale Jr said, ‘We’ve been doing that for 25 years. ‘”

Wallace, who raced in NASCAR during the golden years, compared that era with today. He also revealed that Dale Earnhardt had warned him over an on-track incident, as he said:

“In my day, we were bad! In my day, we were badasses. We didn’t play this social media game like we all do. We met between the trailers, oh yeah. I’ve had my a– chewed out straight to my face by Dale Sr, (who said) ‘Herman? Don’t take me three-wide at Daytona in practice, ever again.'”

The former Cup Series driver also looked back on an incident he had with Terry Labonte, following which they had a talk post-race to straighten things out. This, he found, was missing from modern NASCAR, with drivers “afraid of each other.”

In the case of Preece, it was his controversial team radio message before wrecking Gibbs that found him guilty. Kenny Wallace revealed that no driver even showed intent to wreck on team radio during his racing days. They just went ahead and did it. And they did it when it would hurt the most, like the championship finale at Phoenix.

“In my day, we knew when we were gonna get him and how we were going to get him,” Wallace added. “We never even said anything. Hey, I’ll go deeper. I never even said anything to my team, not even my wife. You get him, and you leave him.”

How NASCAR is clamping down on intentional wrecks

Intentional wrecking in racing is unsportsmanlike, even if a driver is filled with red mist. When racecars are going over 180 mph, any such wreck poses a danger to the initiator, the receiver, or an innocent party around them. Team radio messages or display of intent in post-race interviews are the easiest way for NASCAR officials to hold a driver responsible.

A unique first instance took place in 2023, when Denny Hamlin wrecked Ross Chastain at Phoenix. Moreover, what made it easy for NASCAR to penalize him was that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver admitted to intent-wrecking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast.

The point is, back in the day, drivers were a lot more sneaky about intentionally wrecking a rival. However, NASCAR has now wised up to stunts like this and has been strictly monitoring things. That is why the Chicagoland incidents between Austin Hill and Shane van Gisbergen, and Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith are being scrutinized.

Though none of the four drivers were penalized, ahead of the upcoming race at the EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, NASCAR has summoned them to the hauler to explain themselves and sort their differences to avoid a boiling over of tensions.