It’s been a rough year for Bubba Wallace.
He’s yet to have a Cup Series win so far, has gotten into two fights with a fellow driver, and has now been fined by NASCAR.
Wallace hit Alex Bowman during a race and was fined $50,000.
On his podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. offered his advice and wisdom to the driver on how to handle the situation.
“I would say to Bubba, ‘Man it wasn’t that big of a deal,’” Earnhardt said on his podcast. “I would just say to Bubba, ‘Hey, I can understand the emotion, you ran into him.’ A lot of us didn’t think it should have been a fine. …I thought 50 grand was excessive. NASCAR has their reasons, I don’t know what they were. I was surprised by that. That was a large fine.
“Put it in the rearview mirror. Make the personal adjustments, but don’t have another thought about it. Maybe in this situation next time he does it differently, great. But otherwise, I think it’s not that big of an issue, ” he added.
Earnhardt put NASCAR on blast for what he felt was an excessive fine against Wallace for the incident.
“Let me tell ya something, that ain’t Bubba’s responsibility. That ain’t. And so, you can’t smack Bubba’s hand for Bowman having his belts loose. I can go to Bubba and say, ‘Hey, man, you know next time, he might have his belts loose. Let’s not do that.’ But I go to Bowman, ‘What the hell do you have your belts loose?’ If that’s even true, that’s hearsay. I’m hearing people say he had his window down and his belts loose or his belts off. I just can’t even believe that he would have that on a cool-down lap. He’s still in the car moving.”
Earnhardt has always been a fan of Wallace and praised him for his honesty concerning his struggles with his temper and mental health issues, which he has discussed with him on his show.
“Bubba has shared with us here in this room and everyone else his challenges with his emotions and his mental state of mind,” he said. “I appreciate being open about that. We all probably have more mental challenges and battles going on than we like to admit. But he’s been open about that, and it seems like Bubba definitely does dwell on certain instances like this and maybe makes it a bit larger in his own mind than it is to the rest of us.”
Dale Jr. has seemingly always been a Wallace fan and that appears to continue to this day.
