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NASCAR fans have spent the past 24 hours playing the blame game after Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace collided with four laps remaining in Sunday’s Cup Series race at Darlington. The incident sent Larson spinning into the inside wall and brought out a caution that took what looked like a surefire win away from race leader Ryan Blaney.
Some fans blamed Wallace, who ran into the back of a slowing Larson. Others blamed Larson, who was over 100 laps down at the time and could have pulled off the track long prior without affecting his finish. But what really happened? We now have the driver input data from both Wallace and Larson, and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture for the latter.
For those saying Bubba Wallace intentionally wrecked Kyle Larson. Data shows that Larson hit the brakes right before contact with Wallace. The previous lap Larson didn’t use brake there. Blue is current lap, yellow is previous pic.twitter.com/8ZeMYFwct4
— Auto Racing Analytics (@AR_Analytics) April 6, 2025
Data Shows Kyle Larson Braked More Than Anticipated In Crash With Bubba Wallace
Larson slowed up in an attempt to avoid second-place Tyler Reddick, who had just hit the wall while attempting to hold off Blaney. But the data showed that Larson hit the brakes and slowed far more than could have been reasonably anticipated. As a result, Wallace, who also slowed for the incident, could not avoid the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion.
“Bubba Wallace told me he didn’t think it was warranted for Larson to check up as much as he did after Reddick hit the wall but apologized for ruining Blaney’s day,” Jeff Gluck of The Athletic said on X. “He came up and whispered something in Blaney’s ear on pit road and Blaney declined to say what it was.”
Meanwhile, Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels told Gluck that “They were trying to stay out of the way of the leaders and stay low, and Larson checked up early to make sure he didn’t get into Reddick, but Bubba didn’t know Larson was going to slow down that much.”
Blaney, the 2023 series champion, took the whole thing in stride. But it’s hard to imagine he wasn’t at least a little bit annoyed with both Wallace and Larson.