Upon crossing the finish line on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bubba Wallace thought he had secured a much-needed second-place towards his chances of making the Chase for the Championship.
Instead, NASCAR penalized him, sending the No. 23 to the tail-end of the lead lap (29th) for crossing below the 'out of bounds' line to improve his position. It's an infraction that he strongly disagreed with afterwards.
The move in question took place on the final lap when Wallace took leaders Ryan Blaney and Carson Hocevar three-wide down the backstretch. In the moments after the race, NASCAR issued the penalty.
“It says advancing your position, which I did not do,” Wallace said. “I stayed third, and I was all over the brakes to make sure I did not advance. As soon as I turned, I was like, ‘I’m going to wreck,’ and got on the brakes, kept it under me, and still ended up side-by-side. That move should have propelled me to the lead, and it didn’t because I knew it was wrong because my car did not like that move.
“We’ll see what we can do, but I did not advance my position. I stayed third from the entry of (Turn) 3 all until 50 yards away.”
