Denny Hamlin predicts NASCAR decision on Bubba Wallace penalty, compares to Carson Hocevar

Bubba Wallace could soon face punishment from NASCAR for dooring Alex Bowman during the cool-down lap following the conclusion to Sunday’s Grant Park 165 Chicago Street Race.

Wallace was still upset after Bowman spun him out in Stage 1 and got his revenge after the Hendrick Motorsports driver took the checkered flag in downtown Chicago. Just last Sunday at Nashville, Carson Hocevar intentionally spun Harrison Burton under caution and was fined $50,000 and docked 25 driver points.

Could Wallace face a similar penalty from NASCAR? 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin isn’t so sure how NASCAR will view the Wallace incident to Hocevar’s, seeing as one came at a time where safety vehicles were on the racetrack, and the other happened after the race had ended, he said on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast.

Denny Hamlin speaks out on Bubba Wallace-Alex Bowman incident at Chicago

“I don’t know how NASCAR is gonna view it,” Hamlin said. “So how this is different than Carson Hocevar is that one is under yellow. And under yellow, that means that there’s an unsafe condition and there are safety vehicles on the racetrack. At the end of the race, there are no safety vehicles on the racetrack and it’s not an unsafe condition. There’s not a drivers safety issue. So, I don’t know how they’ll view it and the other also is that Carson spun someone under yellow and it cost them positions and damage to their car. So, that hurt Harrison Burton for the rest of the race. This was the race is over, he took a swipe at Bowman, and I think Bowman underplayed it a little bit in the media.

“But yeah, I don’t know how they’ll view it. I think they could go either way with this because it is different than wrecking someone under caution. Think people that don’t like Bubba will try to draw conclusions into it one way and people that support Bubba will see it in an entirely different way. I think the answer is somewhere in the middle, but certainly, I think they are different simply because of the safety aspect of being under caution versus being at the end of the race. There’s no safety vehicles out there, everyone’s running slow speeds. He’ll probably get a talking to, maybe get a fine or something, but that’ll be all I think comes from this.”

Alex Bowman doesn’t want NASCAR to penalize Bubba Wallace for Chicago incident

Bowman himself didn’t see any problem with Wallace’s retaliation, saying it was “plenty deserved.” Bowman doesn’t believe Wallace deserves any punishment from NASCAR.

“He barely hit me, everything was fine, and it was plenty deserved,” Bowman said.

He added: “I’d be mad, too. I ruined his day. I just messed up. I’ve been embarrassed about it since it happened. I tried to call him during the rain delay, and I shot him a text.”

Wallace, who entered Sunday’s race just below Bowman on the playoff cutline, finished P13.