Image by Rusty Jarrett/LAT
Wallace fined by NASCAR for Texas spin
Darrell Wallace Jr. has been docked 50 points and fined $50,000 by NASCAR for his controversial spin during last week's Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Officials penalized the Richard Petty Motorsports driver under the behavioral section of the rule book. Sections 12.1.a General Procedures; 12.8 NASCAR Member Conduct; 12.8.1 Member Conduct Guidelines; 10.8 In-Race Violations were cited.
The penalty is a result of Wallace spinning in Turn 2 last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, which brought out a caution on Lap 283. The caution interrupted green flag pit stops, which affected playoff driver Kyle Larson.
Friday night at ISM Raceway when asked about the spin by NBC Sports, Wallace appeared to acknowledge that he intentionally spun to save himself from going multiple laps down.
“I learned from Brad [Keselowski] and Joey [Logano],” said Wallace. Noting he is not the only driver to cause intentional cautions, Wallace said he wasn’t worried about any fallout until NASCAR starts penalizing drivers.
https://twitter.com/NASCARonNBC/status/1192971769289814016?s=20
After being outspoken about what Wallace did last week, Larson was asked more about it during his media availability Friday. Larson said data proved Wallace intentionally spun.
“I’m just a driver, so I don’t really know exactly what the proper thing is, whether it’s a penalty or fine,” said Larson. “They’re [NASCAR] good at coming up with that stuff. It affects the race -- it saves them, but it can hurt guys. Sometimes you end up on the right side of it and whatnot. But last week we didn’t, so obviously that’s why I was upset.
“We all have done it; I’ve done it. I got penalized a lap and still was able to recover and win (at Eldora in 2016).”
RPM said its driver will not appeal the penalty.
Kelly Crandall
Kelly has been on the NASCAR beat full-time since 2013, and joined RACER as chief NASCAR writer in 2017. Her work has also appeared in NASCAR.com, the NASCAR Illustrated magazine, and NBC Sports. A corporate communications graduate from Central Penn College, Crandall is a two-time George Cunningham Writer of the Year recipient from the National Motorsports Press Association.
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