What Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin talked about after Kansas finish

CONCORD, N.C. — Bubba Wallace and team owner Denny Hamlin have talked since making contact on the final lap of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.

While racing for the win, Hamlin slid up the track into Wallace. Wallace hit the wall and finished fifth, losing out on an opportunity to lock himself into the Round of 8 in the Cup Series’ playoffs. Hamlin finished second.

Now at the Charlotte Roval, Hamlin can advance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with scoring just a few points. Meanwhile, Wallace needs to either win or make up 26 points on the cutline — or his season is over.

Wallace knew this immediately after the Kansas race. He flipped Hamlin off on the cooldown lap and half-heartedly called him a “dumba-s” before chalking it up to racing for the win.

Hamlin anted up. The post-Kansas episode of his podcast, “Actions Detrimental,” was, “I Won’t Apologize.”

Wallace was asked Saturday, “Does it add another layer to that when Denny just goes on the whole next day and has a graphic that says I won’t apologize? Does the tension and awkwardness just stem from the uniqueness of the situation? “

“You hit it right on the head. I hate that it got to that point, and I expressed my displeasure to Denny (Hamlin) today (Saturday), and he totally respected that. I’m a guy that we have confrontation, and it is not settled – like it is lingering,” Wallace said.

Wallace reminded his boss of that — and his points position too.

“I expressed to him, that what you need from your driver is to be at 110 percent focused on what to do, how to execute, and how to go out there and beat SVG (Shane van Gisbergen). I had a dark cloud over my mind all week long, man, it’s not fair to my team. And I expressed that, he totally respected that, and frankly the conversation allows him to see things from a different perspective,” Wallace said.

Wallace added the conversation went “better than expected.” Still, he said he had to shake off Kansas while practicing and qualifying Saturday at the Roval.

Wallace ultimately qualified 12th. While not a great start, it still continues to show how far he has come as a driver. Road courses used to be a struggle for him.

“For the longest time I was always racing for job security, no matter how long you are signed, I go back to COTA, when I crashed out, third race of the season, I said I needed to be replaced because I was always just chasing the results and wasn’t living up to expectations for self, and I’m sure the expectations for the team. I was just kind of being a realistic, pessimistic – like I’m not doing the job right,” Wallace said.

Just in the last year, Wallace picked up Truck standout crew chief Charles Denike, became a dad and won the Brickyard 400.

“It has been fun being on the race track. Everybody has told me that the start of Kansas last Sunday — they like to say I give up, I never give up, so that is BS when you hear that — but the outcome would have been different.

“Bubba Wallace wouldn’t be fighting for the win a year ago if his Kansas race started out like that (struggling). I think it is just legit, letting the little stuff go and allowing yourself as chance to breathe and looking at things differently. That has produced a lot of the results,” Wallace said.

Those results are motivating Wallace and his team. They’re also pushing forward despite their future hinging on every development in the owners’ ongoing lawsuit with NASCAR.

“We don’t go there and talk about December 1 [start of the trial]. It is our jobs. It is our livelihoods to give it everything we’ve got for the race that is ahead of us. That sounds like a very cliché answer, but I could care less. I’ve got five races left to go out and fight for a championship, and I set that tone from the beginning of the year. We’ve got to work out tails off to make it count each and every week,” Wallace said.

Ultimately, that’s what was most frustrating about Kansas for Wallace.

“All of the people that got affected – that is where my frustration came from, because I felt like I was stepping up for them,” Wallace said. “While the conversation [with Hamlin] went really well – the pain is still there a little bit, but it definitely eased it. So I definitely appreciate Denny’s comments, never want him to back down in any scenario but I didn’t get the chance to see the rest of the corner, and so yeah, that sucks.” 

Hamlin’s Kansas move may turn out to be the biggest “What if?” for him as an owner and for his driver — who still understands it’s just competition.

“I get the question a lot – ‘what is it like racing Denny, on the race track.’ No offense to him but I could give two s-its because he is a competitor, and he has labeled it that way. That was two competitors going for a win, and so as much so as it didn’t work out, I have to respect that,” Wallace said.

“I think Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) said it – I have every right to be pissed off about it.”

Wallace will channel that anger toward advancing in the playoffs in Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Roval.

MORE: Tyler Reddick beats SVG for Charlotte Roval pole