Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman put Chicago in rearview entering Sonoma
By the time they made their ways west to California on Thursday night, Wallace was buying Bowman dinner as both put their incidental run-in behind them.
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'I was wondering if he was gonna mention that,' Wallace said. 'See, I'm a nice guy!
MORE: Cup standings | Wallace after Chicago: 'No love lost'
A miscommunication led Wallace, driver of the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota, to cut across Bowman's nose after a fierce battle for position that involved plenty of contact on the Chicago Street Course. Before Saturday's NASCAR Cup Series practice at Sonoma Raceway, Wallace detailed what led to the error.
'For some reason, my perfectly working digital mirror wasn't looked at,' Wallace said. 'I didn't look there and assumed that he was to my right. He was to my left. I was just getting back up to give him room for the bottom, and he was actually on the top. So I looked like an idiot.'
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Fighting each other as In-Season Challenge opponents last week, the two spoke shortly after the race ended to clear the air, with Wallace assuring Bowman there were no hard feelings after the dustup.
'I think the media definitely wanted that to go in a direction that it didn't go,' Bowman said. 'Yeah, we talked after the race and I saw him the other night at dinner. I think we're all good. Like, I certainly hate that he got wrecked. I don't think that much contact was necessary in that situation. But I also understand that he's trying to race for the bracket challenge and finish the best he can. Kind of is what it is. And he bought me dinner the other night, so we're good. I'll move on from it.'
On-track rivals in NASCAR frequently tend to find each other after recent incidents. That proved true again Thursday when the two wound up at the same restaurant for a meal.
'We get to the hotel for dinner two nights ago now, and he's waiting to get seated right in front of us,' Wallace recalled. 'I just come up, give a big bear hug and told him again, 'Hey, we're good. Nothing's wrong.' And so the hotel we're at, a lot of (NASCAR) industry people are there. My dinner was bought by somebody else, so I paid for Bowman's dinner. It just kind of felt right.'
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What was a battle for seventh place ultimately plummeted Wallace to 28th, five laps down. Wallace, who apologized to his team this week, is two points above the provisional elimination line in the 16-driver Cup Series Playoffs grid entering Sunday's race at Sonoma (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
'I was thinking about that, I was thinking about the In-Season [Challenge],' Wallace said. 'Like, instead, at the end of the day, I gave up 20- something points, and look where I'm at: plus-two. So yeah, it's just going through it. Like I felt like that was my debut race. Rookie mentality. And it was like, what the [expletive] are you doing?'
Wallace admitted it took a few days to forgive himself for the error at Chicago. In years past, those few days may have lingered into the weekend or longer. That wasn't the case this time around.
'To start, it was the same,' Wallace said. 'Like Monday, Tuesday, I was pretty down — and mad at myself, right? And then like, oops — I made a mistake doing something else around the house. And it's like the magnitude is different, but still, a mistake's a mistake, so you just move on. It's been fine the last couple days. But yeah, I would say it'd be totally different last year.'
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