Bubba Wallace drives what many garage insiders consider one of the two fastest cars in the Cup Series. He has led laps, posted consistent finishes, and spent portions of the 2026 season sitting in the top-3 in the championship standings. Sure, consistency hasn’t followed him, but should a single practice shunt at Texas Motor Speedway have been enough to trigger calls for his removal from the Cup Series entirely?

Because hours later, Kyle Larson, the two-time champion, the man the same voices call the greatest driver in the world, spun out in an almost identical fashion during the race itself. The volume, somehow, barely registered. That contrast is the story of this Texas weekend.

Larson had arrived at Fort Worth on a high, as Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race was his to dominate. He claimed his third Texas O’Reilly win and the 19th of his career in the series. But the noise was ‘slightly’ muted on Sunday due to a slight error on his part.

Larson was already facing issues with the handling of his car, and right at the start of Lap 160, his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet snapped loose in Turns 1 and 2, spinning out of control and bringing out the caution.

FOX broadcast caught the radio exchange, which was cutting in its simplicity: “Blow a tire?” “No, I just lost it.”

Still, while Larson’s race was not yet over, the criticism he faced remained remarkably mild compared to that directed at Bubba Wallace.

In a very similar fashion, Wallace had crashed his No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota into the wall during practice. The contact was hard enough that he missed qualifying entirely and was forced to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.

In his defense, he said, “I knew I was loose in the moment and went to correct it, and it was too late. Hate it. Thought we had some decent speed. Just a long Saturday that’s going to make for a good Sunday.”

Some fans did not like that. There was a proper outcry against Wallace, with multiple fans flooding social media to argue that he does not belong in a Cup Series car. However, how do you justify the ferocity of that reaction? And that’s exactly the sentiment some fans carried into the comments section, as they took aim at Larson, while also unearthing the hypocrisy some fans harbor.

Fans call out Kyle Larson’s reputation as the ‘greatest driver’

Saying that there were stark similarities between the two incidents, some fans raised pointed questions about the disparity in reactions. One of the fans commented, “So guys are saying Wallace should be out of Cup; are we bringing that same energy for Larson having the exact same incident?”

Another echoed that sentiment, writing, “‘Get Bubba out of here, can’t drive’—some fans yesterday after the practice crash. *Kyle Larson crashes in the same fashion.*”

When one examines what Wallace has actually done in 2026, questions are bound to be raised. Through the early weeks of the season, he was sitting third in the Cup standings, leading 86 laps, and posting four top-10 finishes. NASCAR analysts noted that his “worst finish” in bad weeks was better than almost every other driver in the field (after his 11th-place finish at Circuit of the Americas). And that is not the profile of a driver who doesn’t belong.

The situation was amplified, though, by the gap that exists between him and his teammate. Wallace is yet to post a victory in the 2026 season despite running the same hardware as Tyler Reddick. But that framing requires context: Reddick became the first driver in the 78-year history of the Cup Series to win the first three races of a season, and by Texas had accumulated five wins, a pace not seen since Dale Earnhardt in 1987. Fans feel that measuring any teammate against that standard is like grading someone for not outrunning a freight train.

“Most talented driver in the world,” another fan said for Larson sarcastically.

Well, this is not the first time Larson has crashed during a Cup race weekend. But his historical track record has always provided armour: two championships, 32 career Cup wins, and consistent playoff contention. The 2021 title run alone was one of the most dominant seasons in modern NASCAR history. He had 10 wins and led 2,581 laps, a figure not surpassed since Jeff Gordon’s 2,610 in 1995.

“Aw man, what a bummerrrrrr. At least the greatest driver in the world got another Saturday win since that seems to be the only way he can win recently. Lmao, he deserves all the shit that comes to him,” one fan took a jab at his O’Reilly success, framing it as a consolation prize for his ongoing Cup drought.

It did feel like his Saturday confidence would carry over and finally help him break his year-long winless streak in the Cup Series. The streak had stretched beyond 33 races after Kansas, the longest of his Hendrick Motorsports tenure, with his last Cup win dating to Kansas Speedway in May 2025.

So, one fan put it: “‘Nope, not an O’Reilly car’ is what he should’ve said.”

But not everyone turned on Larson. Some users were sympathetic, pointing to the equipment he’s working with.

“Kyle Larson wrecks a s–box. Everyone goes wild trying to insult him. I’m not surprised.”

The 2026 season introduced a new Chevrolet body that has proven deeply difficult to manage across all of Hendrick Motorsports and its fellow Chevy teams.

Larson addressed it himself on NASCAR Inside the Race: “I feel like our window of performance is just really narrow currently. I feel like my balance just kind of goes back and forth each run. So maybe that’s the new body. Maybe that’s something else.”

As of now, Larson is sitting in P6 in the driver standings for the Regular Season. So it goes without saying that he is comfortably above the cutoff for making the Chase this year for now. But if he does want to have a serious bid at the title in a season where 23XI Racing is proving itself as a powerhouse, he might need to up his game considerably.