“That’s What Hurt the Racing”—Bubba Wallace Insider Slams Hendrick Motorsports Dominance at Las Vegas

In the Cup Series race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Hendrick Motorsports team ran riot. William Byron triumphed, leading a Hendrick 1-2-3 ahead of Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman. Meanwhile, newcomer Josh Berry had a trial by fire and could only muster a 29th-place finish, but that’s a different story. Maybe it was fortunate that Chase Elliott was absent, or it could have been a massacre. In light of this, 23XI Racing spotter Freddie Kraft spoke about HMS’s dominance.

Speaking his mind on the sets of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Kraft said,

“You saw with the #24 car, he led 175 laps or something, yesterday. The beginning of the race, he’s dominant. Checked out, half a track out, he’s almost half a straightaway out on Larson. They have a bad pit stop, he comes out 4th and he runs 4th until the next caution.

“If the #24 was such a dominant race car, he drives back to the lead. You couldn’t do that yesterday, the cars were going the same speed. I looked up and down lap times and I’m like, ‘Okay, we’re half-a-tenth. We’re running 7th but we’re running half-a-tenth off of what the leaders are running.'”

Bubba Wallace’s Spotter Gives Thumbs Up to NASCAR Over “Step in the Right Direction”

Could Bubba Wallace keep up with the Hendrick Motorsports drivers?

The Hendrick trio were in a class of their own in Las Vegas. Although Bubba Wallace finished in a respectable fourth place, he could not catch up with the Hendrick Motorsports trio. On the bright side, he was the best of the Toyotas, leading Christopher Bell, who was the lead Joe Gibbs Racing driver. In the podcast, Kraft spoke about how difficult the race was. All through the race, they were coaching Wallace and advising him to not get off the throttle too much. He continued,

“You get out and you kind of get in a space in dirty air. Couldn’t move around, couldn’t pass. The corner speeds were so high yesterday, we always talk about it here, off throttle time produces great racing. You’re having to set up a guy, when you’re going to get off throttle. How much brake are you going to use?

“Yesterday we were telling Bubba, ‘Keep doing everything you can to not go to 0% throttle.’ They know what their throttle position is on the dashboard. Whatever you can do to not get to 0%. That means, pretty much everybody’s not coming completely out the throttle. That’s what hurt the racing yesterday.”

Now, Wallace will be hoping to redeem himself in this weekend’s race. However, the 23XI Racing driver will have his work cut out for him in 19th place on the grid. Meanwhile, the Hendrick Motorsports drivers start 1st, 3rd, 17th, and 18th.

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