Bubba Wallace was one unhappy man after the penalty at the San Diego Street Course race on Sunday. Due to it, Wallace fell behind by two laps and lost a race-winning contention as he came from behind and finished second.

"Drive your a** off on a track that you have no idea what you’re doing. Drive up to the lead, and then have it all taken away from you," an unhappy Wallace told the media after the race, as tweeted by Frontstretch.

Wallace lost his right-front tire wheel between Turns 9 and 10 in Stage 1. It occurred due to an unsecured pit stop connection, and the pit gun could not tighten the wheel.

“After every race we do a debrief,” Wallace said. “I hate it, I hate it for my crew. This one little mistake cost us the next couple of weeks.”

“I really had fun today in the car,” he said. “I’m frustrated with second. There’s so much potential left on the table.”

In fact, Wallace realized the loose wheel as soon as he had left the pit road. He planned to come back to fix it, but the 3.4 mile circuit was too long for his wheel to sustain.

As a result, he was immediately penalized by the governing body, and at the same time, it suspended two crew members. However, Wallace fought back brilliantly and finished the race in second place.

Bubba Wallace declined to put pit crew under the bus for San Diego mishap

In the same interview, Bubba Wallace eventually composed his words and did not hold his team crew responsible for the mishap that took place during the Anduril 250 at the San Diego Street Course. Wallace said on this:

“I’m not bashing anybody. Pit crew, one of the best on pit road and had a mistake. We all have mistakes. Unfortunate that it cost us.”

Mistakes from the pit crew are not rare in NASCAR, or in any form of motorsports. From pit gun malfunctions to pit crew errors, drivers have to go through multiple such issues during the race, something Ryan Blaney faced the most this season.

Wallace started the race from 12th place and came home in second place, 10 seconds after his teammate, Corey Heim, claimed the first-ever Cup Series win of his career. Though frustrated with his own race, Wallace was happy for his 23XI teammate.

“My body language and facial expression will not show it, but I’m really excited for Corey and [crew chief Bootie Barker], getting him back to victory lane,” Wallace said. “But being a winner in the Cup Series is something that we all want to achieve.”

Meanwhile, Kyle Larson, Zane Smith, and AJ Allmendinger wrapped up the top five. Wallace has moved up two places and now sits in 11th place with 429 points.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason