NASCAR: Bubba Wallace sends controversial reminder after Daytona 500

Bubba Wallace reminded fans of the Team Penske wheel controversy after he was beaten by Austin Cindric for the Daytona 500 victory in Sunday’s 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season opener.

A photo finish saw Team Penske’s Austin Cindric cross the finish line just 0.036 seconds ahead of 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace to win the 64th annual Daytona 500 in his first start as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver.

The rookie driver of the #2 Ford, who made his first Daytona 500 start last year behind a fourth Team Penske entry, replaced new RFK Racing driver/co-owner Brad Keselowski after the 2021 season, and he did what Keselowski couldn’t do in 12 Daytona 500 attempts with Roger Penske’s team.

As for Wallace, he now has two runner-up finishes in five Daytona 500 starts. He finished in second place as a rookie in 2018 behind Austin Dillon, and he was overjoyed with the result.

But this time around, he was left extremely disappointed.

His frustration and disappointment with missing out on a victory in the “Great American Race” by just 0.036 seconds was evident during his post-race interviews.

And he later took to Twitter with an interesting tweet.

This is an obvious reference to the ongoing controversy involving the wheels that NASCAR confiscated from Team Penske and RFK Racing on Friday morning, the day after the Bluegreen Vacations Duels set the Daytona 500 starting lineup.

The confiscated parts were taken to the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, North Carolina for further inspection. According to Motorsport, it was later revealed that the wheels in question were likely not involved in the Duels.

A Goodyear spokesman reportedly stated that almost 85% of tires are mounted on wheels prior to the race weekend, though a team could potentially unmount and remount a tire at the track or add something to the wheels after mounting.

RFK Racing driver and co-owner Brad Keselowski stated that the situation was not performance-related and had to do with safety. The wheel issues experienced by teams during the Daytona 500 would seem to corroborate that claim, and the entire situation appears to be far from over as the Gen 7 car era progresses.

If NASCAR decides to penalize these teams, any penalties will be determined after the inspection, presumably sometime this week. Given their introduction of a tougher penalty system for the first year of the new car, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them make a big statement early on.

Of course, it’s not that hard to see the overall sarcastic tone in Wallace’s tweet, though some took it as a “sore loser” complaint accusing Team Penske of cheating.

Wallace graciously congratulated Cindric on his Daytona 500 victory after the race, both in his interview and in person, and the tone of his tweets throughout the rest of the night became crazier and crazier — for a reason he made somewhat obvious.

So all in all, it’s good to see him trying to laugh off the disappointing result.

One of those tweets was directed at his spotter, Freddie Kraft.

And then there was this one, referencing the Busch Clash at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum a few Sundays ago.

He concluded his evening with one more expressing his frustration.

https://twitter.com/BubbaWallace/status/1495620422011924481

He did make one serious statement after the race, illustrating both his disappointment and his optimism.

Cindric’s #2 Ford did pass post-race inspection, confirming him as the winner of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season opener.