Why Was Bubba Wallace Penalized in Atlanta? NASCAR Official Offers Explanation

Bubba Wallace thought he had a runner-up finish locked up at EchoPark Speedway. NASCAR took it away instead, dropping the No. 23 Toyota 27 spots for a rules violation on the final lap of a race that had already stretched past midnight.

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The penalty didn’t just cost Wallace a trophy chase. It shaved his cushion above the Chase cutline down to 55 points, tightening a playoff picture that was already getting crowded behind him with seven regular-season races left to run. On Tuesday, NASCAR finally offered an explanation for the seemingly harsh penalty.

What Happened on the Final Lap at EchoPark Speedway

GettyBubba Wallace, driver of the #23 Columbia PFG/Academy Sports Toyota was slapped with a harsh penalty after the Quaker State 400 on Sunday.

Wallace took the white flag running third in Sunday night’s Quaker State 400, a race delayed more than three hours by lightning and rain before finishing early Monday morning. He shoved leader Ryan Blaney into Turn 1, then dove low as Blaney swung high on Carson Hocevar, dropping below the yellow line to make it three-wide for the top spot.

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He stayed alongside Hocevar and Blaney through Turns 3 and 4 before a push from Christopher Bell carried Blaney across the line first.

Wallace crossed the stripe second in real time, but officials ruled he had violated Section 8.7.2.A of the rule book, which bars passing below the double yellow lines to advance position, according to NASCAR.com‘s Dustin Albino, who analyzed penalty.

Wallace and his No. 23 team spent 31 minutes inside the NASCAR hauler arguing the case. The ruling stood anyway. His finish dropped from second to 29th, a swing that cost him 27 points and came on top of points already lost in a Stage 2 incident with Ty Gibbs.

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NASCAR Explains the Penalty on ‘Hauler Talk’ Podcast

NASCAR Vice President of Racing Communications Mike Forde addressed the ruling Monday on the “Hauler Talk” podcast, explaining that Wallace never needed to complete a clean pass beneath the double yellow lines for the penalty to apply. The attempt alone, and the position it opened up for him, was enough to trigger the black flag.

“If he did go below the yellow lines and eventually improved (his position) and he did that to improve it and he wouldn’t have gotten to where he did without going below the yellow lines, that’s really what matters here in this case,” Forde said, as quoted by NASCAR insider Jeff Gluck. “He doesn’t actually have to make the pass while under the double painted line.”

Forde also dismissed the idea that Wallace’s attempt to give the position back should have mattered once he had already dipped below the line. Tracking data showing Wallace tried to yield the spot carried no weight with officials reviewing the incident. There are no give-backs once a car goes under the paint, Forde said, a distinction that left little room for Wallace’s protest to gain traction.

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Bubba Wallace’s Playoff Picture Gets Tighter

Blaney won in overtime for his second victory of the season, while Wallace’s penalty reshuffled the finishing order behind him without changing the result up front, according to motorsports statistics site Jayski.

Wallace sits 13th in the regular-season standings at 493 points, still 55 points clear of the cutline heading toward the postseason field. But he’s finished outside the top 20 in six of his last nine starts, and Sunday marked another race where speed up front didn’t translate into points on the board. He led 11 laps and raced at the front for most of the night, only to walk away with nine points to show for it.

“Everyone behind us in points is like, ‘Oh, 23,’” Wallace said. “They see that and are licking their chops. With the position that we are in, we’re not safe.”

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