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Alex Bowman on Bubba Wallace: ‘I don’t really think he did anything wrong’ after Roval

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After tempers flared all day between Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace, Bubba splashes Bowman in the face with water as Bowman is sitting by his car recovering from the heat of the race.

Alex Bowman said Friday that he didn’t have an issue with Bubba Wallace confronting him and splashing him in liquid after last weekend’s Cup race while Bowman sat next to his car being tended to by a medical worker.

Bowman was asked by SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “On-Track” whether Wallace had apologized to him in private this week after not making any public statements about the incident.

“He hasn’t (apologized), but I feel he said what he had to say and got that out after the race,” Bowman said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I don’t think that was the end of the world. I don’t really think he did anything wrong there.

“We all have emotions inside and outside of the race cars and that stuff happens.”

Wallace approached Bowman after Sunday’s race, briefly said something to the Hendrick Motorsports driver before splashing him with liquid from the bottle he was carrying and walking away.

After leaving the medical center, Bowman didn’t repeat what Wallace said to him, but added it was “nothing classy by any means.”

On Monday, NASCAR’s chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio he would meet with Wallace during the week to discuss the incident.

“I think that was really not classy whatsoever,” O’Donnell said. “I understand that drivers have issues with each other during a race, we totally get that, but when a driver is on the ground being attended to by medical personnel, you need to be smarter than that.”

Wallace, who is not a playoff driver, had been intentionally spun by Bowman on Lap 43. Bowman was mad at Wallace for him flipping off Bowman multiple times during the race, something Wallace also had done the previous weekend at Richmond.

Wallace’s one-finger salute at the Roval was apparently in reaction to being hit by Bowman on the first lap of the race.

“That was just a mistake,” Bowman said after last weekend’s race. “I got flipped off for every single straightaway on the entire race track for three laps. I got flipped off by him for like three or four laps in a row at Richmond, so I’m just over it.”
“I’ve got to stand up for myself at some point,” Bowman said after finishing second at the Roval. “Probably wouldn’t have gotten wrecked if he had his finger back in the car.

“I’d be mad too, but he put himself in that spot.”

Later on Friday Bowman was asked about mending fences with Wallace and other drivers he has run-ins with.

“I don’t really talk to those guys anyways,” Bowman said. “I kind of bring my friends with me to the race track. I’m not here to be driver’s friend. I’ve said that since I started here. I’m not here to be friends with the people that I’m paid to beat every weekend. There are some guys that get along really well in the garage, but I just kind of stick to myself. It’s not anything against anyone. I’m just kind of quiet and keep to myself.”

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