Wallace charges after Larson following crash at Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS >> Bubba Wallace tried to fight reigning NASCAR champion Kyle Larson after a crash Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that also collected title contender Christopher Bell.

Wallace had led 29 laps and clearly had a fast car in the opening race of the third round of the playoffs. Wallace did not qualify for the playoffs, and Larson was eliminated last week.

The incident began when Larson attempted a threewide pass — Kevin Harvick in the middle dropped out of the bunch — and Larson slid up the track against Wallace. When Wallace didn’t lift to give Larson any room, Larson used his Chevrolet to shove Wallace’s Toyota into the wall.

Wallace then bounced back down the track, followed Larson’s car down to the apron and appeared to deliberately hook him in retaliation. That sent Larson spinning into the path of Bell, who won last Sunday at Charlotte to earn the automatic berth into the round of eight, and ended Bell’s race.

Wallace climbed from his car and marched his way toward Larson. Wallace was shouting before he even got to Larson and immediately began to shove the smaller driver. Larson tried to turn away from him and several times lifted his arms to block Wallace’s shoves, but Wallace got in multiple shots before a NASCAR safety worker separated the two.

Wallace claimed he didn’t deliberately wreck Larson, but both Larson and Bell viewed it as clear retaliation. NASCAR could penalize Wallace if it also believes he deliberately retaliated.

“I’m smart enough to know how easily these cars break, so when you get shoved into the fence deliberately like he did trying to force me to lift, the steering was gone,” Wallace said. “Larson wanted to make a three-wide divebomb, but he never cleared me and I don’t lift.

“I know I’m kind of new to running up front, but I don’t lift. I wasn’t even at a spot to lift and he never lifted, either, and now we’re junk. Just (very bad) move of his execution.”

Asked what message he was trying to send to Larson when he began shoving him, Wallace said, “He knows.”

“He knows what he did was wrong. He wanted to question what I was doing, and he never cleared me,” Wallace said.