NASCAR penalizes Bubba Wallace for intentional Texas spin

After a week of discussion and pressure mounting, NASCAR made the decision to penalize Bubba Wallace for his intentional spin at Texas Motor Speedway.

It’s all fun and games until somebody actually gets penalized.

For must of the last week, there has been talk of the intentional spin by Richard Petty Motorsports’ Bubba Wallace in this past Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series round of 8 playoff race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Wallace had a tire going down in this at the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Texas Motor Speedway oval in Fort Worth, Texas. He slowed to bring his #43 Chevrolet to the apron of the track before weaving back onto the track, back down onto the apron and then eventually spinning out in turn two, bringing out a caution flag.

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This intentional spin drew the ire of several drivers, most notably Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson, who was running in fourth place before he came into the pits just five laps prior to the spin.

As a result, he was mired in 21st place when the caution flag flew, and he restarted the race in 19th. He could only rally to finish in 12th, and he was adamant that NASCAR needed to do something about these intentional spins in the form of penalties.

Several other drivers, including teammate Kurt Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer and Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, lost positions as a result of this incident as well. After running toward the front of the field, they finished in ninth, 10th, 11th and 17th place, respectively.

Larson, the lone round of 8 driver of this bunch, is now mired 23 points behind the Championship 4 cut line after spending much of the race within just a few points of it, at times even ahead of it. Just one race, tomorrow’s race at ISM Raceway, remains prior to the Championship 4.

Now, six days later, NASCAR has responded, penalizing Wallace.

NASCAR docked him 50 points in the championship standings, and they fined him $50,000. This penalty drops him from 27th to 28th place in the standings while promoting Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell from 28th to 27th.

This penalty comes just one day after Wallace was interviewed by NBC Sports’ Dustin Long and asked why he should be worried about a potential penalty.

Here is what Richard Petty Motorsports director of competition Philippe Lopez had to say about this penalty, according to NASCAR.

"“We fully understand NASCAR’s position and expectations of its competitors. NASCAR has a difficult job officiating race events and we do not need to make the task more challenging. Wallace will not appeal the penalty, and will direct his immediate focus to this weekend’s event at the ISM Raceway.”"

NASCAR senior vice president of competition Scott Miller stated that Wallace’s admission in this video is what led to the penalty being issued.

"“If we feel like it’s on purpose and we have enough information to determine that 100% it’s on purpose, we will react. The reaction today was after a complete admission of guilt, so that’s really what led to the penalty happening today…that was a full admission of something that has been abuzz in the garage and the media. (A warning instead of a penalty) wasn’t an option.”"

NASCAR has now set a precedent moving forward, and with two races remaining in the 2019 playoffs, it was a precedent they felt needed to be set to prevent another playoff picture-altering intentional spin from taking place.