NASCAR will review a post-race incident at Chicago involving Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman.
The incident occurred on the cooldown lap as Bowman celebrated his first win on a road course. Wallace drove up next to Bowman and then door-slammed him. This contact sent the No. 48 into the wall and caused some slight damage.
According to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports, NASCAR will review the incident. If there are penalties, they will be announced midweek. NASCAR normally issues the penalty report on Tuesday or Wednesday.
BUBBA WALLACE DOORSLAMMED ALEX BOWMAN. 😳
The No. 48 spun the No. 23 earlier in the race. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/C9GP93C4zC
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) July 8, 2024
The door slam was a byproduct of an earlier incident involving the two drivers. Bowman hit Wallace early in stage 2 and spun the No. 23 toward the inside wall. He was able to navigate past while Daniel Suarez remained stuck in place.
Wallace had to head to pit road so his team could assess the damage to his car. He ended stage 1 seventh in the running order but ended stage 2 in 36th place. He never made it back into the top 10 after the spin.
"I'd be mad too," Bowman said during his post-race press conference. "I ruined his day. The restart was chaotic. I just made every wrong decision I possibly could.
"I was fighting with my windshield wiper switch trying to get the thing working, and I couldn't get it working. I was focused on that, missed the corner, and cleaned him out. Like, I locked all four tires up and slid right into him."
Bowman said that he spent the entire red flag delay feeling embarrassed for his mistake. He said that he tried calling Wallace and then sent him a text.
"Nothing I can do to make it better," Bowman said. "And I'm sure us winning only makes it worse."
The Hendrick Motorsports driver also said that NASCAR shouldn't penalize Wallace for the post-race contact. He called the door slam "well-deserved."
NASCAR recently issued a penalty to another driver for actions inside the race car.
Carson Hocevar spun Harrison Burton under caution during the final stage of last weekend's race at Nashville Superspeedway. There were no penalties during the race. However, NASCAR fined Hocevar $50,000 and penalized him 25 points the following Tuesday.