After the disappointment in Fontana, many bosses would have been critical of Bubba Wallace. But Denny Hamlin isn’t one of them. He recently explained how the 29-year-old got involved in a mess inadvertently.
“I noticed after the race, there were a ton of torn-up splitters. Both the 23XI cars had splitter problems. My car had a splitter torn up. I think the further you were back in the pack, the more your front end was absolutely sandblasted. And it sandblasted the front noses so much that the splitter started to separate.”
“The leading edge of it started to separate and I saw a picture of Bubba’s car where the bottom splitter had fallen down to the ground. That’s such a detrimental performance. He was running well and all suddenly just disappeared. Yeah, the track was a mess to get going, to say the least.”
It has been twice this season that Bubba Wallace could not finish his races. He was involved in a crash at Daytona and had an engine-overheating issue at Fontana. Besides Hamlin, Wallace’s fans came out in his support after the Auto Club 400 race. Despite the outcome, they commended his efforts and reassured him of the faith they have in the Alabama-born driver.