23XI Racing owner says NASCAR star Bubba Wallace 'wrecked himself' at Martinsville

Denny Hamlin has given his opinion this week on a controversial moment involving his 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace.

Though 23XI co-owner Hamlin was further forward at the front of the pack at the time of the incident, which saw Wallace run through Carson Hocevar and knock himself out of the race in the process, he has since watched the footage back and gave his take on his Actions Detrimental podcast this week.

Wallace, for his part, has claimed that the wreck was the result of a simple misjudgement a lap after a restart, which some pundits have said is backed up by his onboard camera footage.

Hamlin doesn't seem entirely convinced by that explanation, saying that he thinks Wallace was trying to knock Hocevar out of his way, having become frustrated through the race that he hadn't been running as well as expected – in addition to Hocevar's actions the previous lap.

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Hamlin: Bubba wrecked himself

Asked what he made of the incident, he replied: “I made of it that Bubba wrecked himself, trying to knock Carson out of the way. He just didn’t let up, kept driving in there and eventually it caused him to wreck himself and others. That’s my take from watching it."

On Hocevar's actions at the restart a lap prior to the wreck, Hamlin said: “It’s typically a d*** move if everyone is restarting into Turn 1 on a restart, everyone’s got to check up for the corner, right?

If you’re in Row 8, you’re checking up for the entry of 1 sooner than you normally would. It’s like going into Turn 1 on COTA where someone just, ‘Alright, I’m just gonna go left and if you guys are going to check-up, I’m just going to jam it on in there'.

"Carson says 'I’m going to go three-wide on a restart at Martinsville to the bottom'. It’s not illegal, it’s just a d*** move. He was trying to take advantage of the guys that were checking up for the corner, and Bubba didn't like it so he says 'well, I'm gonna run into your ass'. He ran into his ass, and wrecked himself."

Wallace spotter: We need to clean that s*** up

Wallace's spotter Freddie Kraft insisted on the Door Bumper Clear podcast this week that Wallace told him he simply misjudged the corner and the cars stacking up ahead of him, and that he has to believe his driver.

However, that didn't exactly appear to put him in a better mood about the situation, saying: "Hocevar did nothing wrong. He took us three-wide into (Turn) 1 and passed us clean. I think it was just a lapse in judgment for a moment. We need to do better, we need to be better, and if we're going to contend for top ten in points, top five in points, we need to clean that s*** up.

"And hopefully moving forward, we will. We had a conversation last night about it and we'll go from there. Everyone is saying 'You're going to make excuses for him'. There's no excuse. It's inexcusable. It's a mistake and it can't happen."

On speaking to Wallace about the reason for the wreck, he said: “There’s not really any sugarcoating about it. I got to take Bubba for his word. He said he misjudged. If he misjudged, it was a really bad misjudgment. … It hurts. We went from third in points to now, I think we’re like tied for eighth with five other guys."