Freddie Kraft, spotter for Bubba Wallace and the No. 23 team, took responsibility for the Lap 27 “big one” during this past Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Coming down the frontstretch off of Turn 4, Wallace appeared to turn down the track and into Joey Logano while the field was three-wide.
Kraft took the blame on Monday’s “Door Bumper Clear” podcast. He said he told Wallace to pick up Kyle Larson in his mirror to get a good run down the straightaway but added he “f*cked up” not telling him they were already three-wide. Once Larson made slight contact with Wallace, that ignited the 12-car wreck.
“My biased opinion — the thing that annoys me the most about the whole thing is we miss a block on [Ryan] Blaney in [Turns] 3 and 4 where Bubba was like, ‘I was too loose to get down there and block him.’ Our car was really, really free to start this race.,” Kraft said. “It just came to a point where we didn’t get that block, so now what I’m doing off of 4 is telling Bubba, ‘Pick up the 5 [Larson] in your mirror, that’s where we’re going to get the best run down the front straightaway. I f*cked up by not telling Bubba we were three-wide. I don’t think Bubba was moving to the left either way, but we were too tight to the other guys because where Logano comes off of 4, he loses a nose, so now he’s up a lane higher than he really wants to be. The 8 [Kyle Busch] plugs the bottom, now we’re three-wide.
“I’m more worried about trying to build a run from behind, so I’m trying to square the 5 up behind us and get the run down the frontstretch. For me, again, probably biased opinion, you see we’re all tight together here. The second the 5 gets to us, we get a little squirrely, puts us on Joey’s fender and we can never get off of it because we’re three-wide. It started because we were too tight to the 22 [Logano] which is my fault. The 5 doesn’t do anything wrong, he just gets a little bit in the back of us, turns us, now we get on Joey’s fender and we can’t get off.
“… If there’s anyone to blame, it’s me for not getting out that we were three-wide already. But again, I take for granted how Bubba is very aware in the car. He knew Joey’s on his quarter panel. He probably didn’t know the 8 was down there, so that’s my fault. But I think the wreck got triggered when the 5 just gets our bumper — didn’t do anything wrong, not overaggressive by any means — he just knocks us a little bit squirrely, we get on the 22’s fender and can’t get off of it. That’s what triggered the wreck for me.”
Bubba Wallace ends regular season on a whimper
The wreck brought out the red flag and ended several drivers’ night, as well as their chances of making the playoffs. Wallace got some of the worst of it but fortunately for him, his Brickyard 400 victory last month locked him into the postseason. He was the first one to make it back from the infield care center, where he spoke with Parker Kligerman of NBC Sports.
“Oh, I need to see a replay, I know everything was happening pretty quickly there,” Wallace said. “… The hit from the 5 shoved me down there. And it was like I got shoved up by the 22 when the 12 moved up. He was trying to just move up and take a lane, but oh well. Man, I hate it. 22nd to the lead in a short amount of time.”
Bubba Wallace later took blame for the incident: “I hate that. I’ll take the blame for it, unfortunately. Just a crap deal. Everything was going too good, too early to be all true. So, something was bound to happen. I hate that we were involved in it, but hopefully, we can get the 45 [Tyler Reddick] in still. So, all in all, we’re locked in. Let’s get focused for Darlington, and I’m OK.”
