Who's at fault in the incident between Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson?

Motorsport photo

Moments after Ryan Blaney moved into the race lead with just a few laps to go at Darlington, a surprise caution flew. Kyle Larson, who was over 160 laps down, spun exiting Turn 2 and hit the inside wall. The pit stops that followed and overtime restart allowed Denny Hamlin to go from third to first and take the win while Blaney fell back to fifth.

But what exactly happened behind the race leaders to cause that race-altering yellow? It turns out that Blaney passing Reddick and the incident that followed are directly connected, as showcased by in-car cameras. As Blaney muscled his way by Tyler Reddick, Reddick slid up the track and pancaked the outside wall at the exit of Turn 2.

Larson, who had just passed Bubba Wallace (who was one lap down), saw Reddick in the wall and abruptly slowed. Wallace, unable to see much beyond Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, could not react in time and ran into the back of him, sending Larson spinning.

Radio communication

Wallace reacted on the radio with dismay: “Brother, that was not that big of a [expletive] checkup … Ugh, I didn’t [expletive] want that.” Video shows that Wallace had tucked in directly behind Larson right before the HMS driver got onto the brakes. His team reacted as well, saying the “dude just panicked.”

But why was Larson even passing Wallace? They weren’t fighting for position. Well, it appears that Larson came down pit road for a fresh set of tires with less than 10 laps to go. He was charging forward, catching the lead group at a rapid rate when he overtook Wallace.

Upon seeing Reddick, Larson abruptly slowed by nearly 20mph at the exit of the corner. “I was checking up so that’s embarrassing,” radioed Larson. Ultimately, while there was nothing intentional about any of it and it can just be called a racing incident, blame likely falls to Larson if one had to choose. He was being overly cautious and trying to get out of the way in order to avoid this very outcome, but with Wallace falling in directly behind him, there was little time to react as Larson aggressively hit the brakes. Larson also had nothing to gain from passing Wallace and had no chance of gaining any positions on-track.

It’s also worth noting that last year, Larson would not have been allowed to return to the track after his early-race crash (in the same spot). However, the updated damaged vehicle policy for 2025 allows for lengthy garage repairs to be made without falling out of the race. Larson was certainly able to keep pace in his fully repaired car so that wasn’t an issue, but he just ended up being in the wrong place at the worst possible time.