Bubba Wallace and William Byron were battling inside the top 10 when Alex Bowman, running sixth, lost control on Lap 77 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Within seconds, a violent three-car wreck brought all their races to an abrupt end. Bowman knew he was responsible, and he knew what he needed to do next.
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After exiting the medical center, Bowman told the media, including Matt Weaver, that he was responsible for the collision, admitting that his loss of control had ruined the afternoons of two fellow competitors.
“I had run down there a lot and been really tight on exit. As soon as I touched the throttle, it snapped, and it really, it obviously caught me off guard, and I overcorrected and just did a s*** job and ruined some guys’ days,” Bowman said grimly. “I hate that for William and Bubba. It’s on me.
“It should be better than that, but yeah, just not really sure why it snapped as bad as it did. Because we had run down there so much and been really tight on exit, but it should have been ahead of it better than that.”
How the three-car wreck occured
It all went down when Wallace in the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota was running side by side with the No. 48 HMS coming out of Turn 2 onto the backstretch. Bowman suddenly got loose and tried to correct his car. But the Chevrolet snapped to the right and slammed into Wallace, who was running the outside line.
Wallace, who had been running well before that and was even in contention for the race lead for a bit, was caught off guard and had nowhere to go as the nose of Bowman’s car slammed into the left side of the Toyota.
Meanwhile, Byron in the No. 24 HMS Chevy was running behind Wallace, and when he saw the contact ahead of him, he tried to go left to the inside line. His front right grazed Bowman’s spinning car, peeling back the tape on the right side of Byron’s vehicle.
Byron then went straight into Wallace. This time the contact was to the left rear of Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota. Wallace, Byron, and Bowman all ended up in the run-off area as a caution fell.
Bowman was asked by the press if he could feel the issue building up or if he felt his car was about to get loose.
“I was complaining about being tight off, and obviously we got it not tight off,” Bowman revealed. “But it was really fast. I don’t know. My car was really good, and I don’t know why it did that.”
This just adds to an already frustrating season for him. Bowman has already missed four races earlier in the year because of vertigo and failed to make the Chase. Charlotte marked his sixth DNF of the season, bringing another frustrating afternoon to an end for the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet.
All three drivers are fine, but during the incident, the 23XI driver was visibly shaken up and needed help getting out of his car. But even then, he understands this was not done on purpose.
Wallace has no hard feelings for Bowman
Wallace’s double impact against the walls made the crash rather alarming. Emergency crews brought a stretcher to his car, but the 23XI Racing driver eventually climbed out and walked toward a waiting ambulance. But despite the frightening experience, Wallace was not interested in blaming Bowman personally.
“No warning,” Wallace said after the crash. “Seen it in the last second. The 48 came up and clipped us. No hard feelings. He just got loose and got us.”
Wallace also revealed that the first impact had damaged his brakes, making the second hit even worse. But even then, he took the time to lighten the air, with a joke.
“Still got nine fingers and nine toes, so we’re good,” Wallace said. For sure, fans would be relieved to see their driver in his element after a rather vicious accident.
One thing, however, is certain: it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
A costly setback for Wallace and Byron
Before Charlotte, Byron was 12th on the leaderboard, and Wallace was 10th; they now sit in 11th and 13th, respectively. Coming into Charlotte, Wallace had four top-ten finishes in five Chase races. Wallace was 137 points behind championship leader Kyle Larson. Now he is 185 points behind Larson and technically too far behind to make up that ground, barring a miraculous four-race run.
For Byron too, the Chase was just starting to look better. He began at Darlington with a DNF, but since then he has finished in the top ten in every race before misfortune struck at Charlotte. Byron, too, is far from making a comeback to championship contention, sitting 208 points off his teammate.
They’d better hope Lady Luck is on their side next time.