NASCAR issued a penalty to Bubba Wallace Wednesday morning, fining him $50,000 for door-slamming Alex Bowman into the wall on the cooldown lap at Chicago. As expected, this decision split fans of the sport and its drivers.
X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, was filled with comments Wednesday morning after NASCAR announced the penalty. Some users were angry, some were happy, and others were just confused about what warrants a penalty.
I really wish NASCAR would supply the reasoning for what exactly is breaking the code of conduct; similar actions have been done before, although each action has its own circumstances that make them different..
This one is just confusing
— Alex Haas 🌌🔥🐲 (@AlexHaas24) July 10, 2024
One point of contention for fans on X was that only Wallace received a fine. Chase Elliott door-slammed Daniel Suarez on the cooldown lap but his name was not on the weekly penalty report. However, Fox Sports' Bob Pockrass reports that NASCAR will talk to Elliott about his incident.
"Better announce that Chase Elliot fine too," one user posted. Another weighed in and said that NASCAR was not beating the "favoritism allegations."
The two instances of post-race contact were very similar. Elliott and Wallace both door-slammed another driver to show displeasure. The main difference is that Bowman hit the wall and his right-side tires left the ground. Suarez was in the middle of the track when Elliott hit him.
Some fans, however, focused more on the severity of the punishment. A segment of X users wanted NASCAR to take away points, something that would not match the penalty issued to Suarez after last season's race at Circuit of the Americas.
Don’t like ‘em at all ngl but he shouldn’t have been fined at all. He just showed his displeasure! Was it dangerous he slammed him in the wall with his belts possibly being undone? Yes. But he didn’t deserve a fine.
— Landon 🇺🇸 (@landonsports9) July 10, 2024
Other X users didn't understand why there was a fine in the first place. Some noted that Bowman had said that NASCAR shouldn't penalize Wallace for his post-race actions.
One vocal group, however, expressed the opinion that $50,000 just wasn't enough for contact when drivers are lowering their safety nets and undoing their belts. These X users didn't think this amount of money would be significant.
"The issue is doing something like this with nets down," one X user posted. "Big safety issue, but these fines do nothing to deter future behavior. This is peanuts for the drivers and big teams -- points, stern probation, or something like that is more impactful."