Bubba Wallace took responsibility for the crash between himself and Ryan Blaney on the last lap of Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, ending a potential duel for the win between the two friends.
“I pulled a late block – close, close, close block — and just that sent us around,” Wallace said. “Not the No. 12’s (Blaney) fault, just I honestly thought that he would leave me high and dry coming back around and so just hate it, hate it for my team. That’s how it goes.
“So that was our best, by far, plate race that we’ve ever done, so hat’s off to the No. 23 group, Freddie on top of the roof. Just a great day for us, just a crap result, so…hate it. I caused that one and m an, I just thought it’d play out a little bit different — obviously not getting wrecked, but I thought the move would happen coming off through the trioval.”
Wallace’s 23XI Racing Toyota led the field at the white flag with an assist from Blaney. The two surged in the outside lane around Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, who led the inside lane.
“The way we were shoving and pushing, we were kind of getting each other out of whack and sort of moving the momentum forward,” Wallace said. “And then when I got the move, it was, you know, OK, cool, and it was all about defending, and you can’t let your guard down for one second, or you end up in (the infield care center).”
After making the pass for the lead, going into Turn 1, Wallace and Blaney simultaneously moved to the bottom. Blaney, however, still had a run and started moving to the outside, which Wallace chased. The two touched, and Wallace spun to the left, bounced off Keselowski, and spun back into the pack.