Round 3 of NASCAR’s In-Season Tournament starts this weekend. We are now down to eight lucky drivers in the Cup Series garage. However, the process of getting from 16 to 8 entailed plenty of chaos. One chapter of that chaotic story was written by Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman. Rivals who have professed their animosity multiple times on the racetrack before, both Wallace and Bowman drew raised eyebrows from veterans, including Kyle Busch.
Rowdy’s own fortune was not so impressive. He got knocked out in Round 1 at Atlanta by Brad Keselowski, who finished 2nd while Busch finished 21st. However, Kyle Busch is prepared to forget about his lost tournament chances for the bigger picture. And he urges two heated rivals to do the same.
Kyle Busch tries to offer a vision
Well, it is not like Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace clashed for the first time. Their issues sprang for the first time in 2019 when Bowman spun out Wallace in Turn 2 at the Charlotte Roval. That feud ended with Wallace splashing water on Bowman’s face. Then, fast forward to 2024, things took a grim turn. After on-race contact initiated by Bowman, Wallace door-slammed his rival on the cool-down lap and incurred a hefty penalty. Despite being paired up with each other for the In-Season Tournament last weekend, it looked like the 23XI Racing driver and the Hendrick Motorsports driver just needed an excuse to get rough again. That is what Kyle Busch believes.
The two-time Cup Series champion spoke in a recent Sirius XM NASCAR Radio episode. “In Bubba’s mind, it had to have been a little bit that him and Bowman were going against each other for the bracket challenge for the weekend. And so he was trying to hold back the 48 as much as he could, even though the 48 was on fresher tires and just block them…They were being rough with one another literally for that.” Ultimately, the two rivals ignored the bigger picture of making the playoffs, as Kyle Busch continued. “Finish too, right? Like there’s a race within a race, but you’ve got to focus on the bigger grand scheme of things, which is going out there and finishing the race and being able to score as many points as he can. If you’re not gonna win, he wants to point his way into the playoffs obviously.”
“I don’t think those two really like each other all that well.”@KyleBusch had a front row seat for @BubbaWallace and @AlexBowman‘s battle at @NASCARChicago and shared his thoughts.
Full Hour → https://t.co/3tK9DzBQXb pic.twitter.com/R8Jym8gQJi
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) July 10, 2025
Alex Bowman finished 8th, while Bubba Wallace washed up in 28th place. Hence, things were worse for the 23XI Racing star, who has not won a race since 2022. Kyle Busch continued that their post-race peace convo may not have meant much, considering their history of aggression. Busch said, “It looked afterwards like it was no hard feelings because Bubba basically said that, right? Like, ‘Hey, I was running you rough, I was running you hard, I was trying to block you, hanging on for dear life.’ So there wasn’t as much drama afterwards as people would have thought…I don’t think those two really like each other all that well. There’s been a few times over the years they’ve run over one another.”
Clearly, the fiasco in Chicago looked like a repetition of earlier events to Kyle Busch. Yet that may be rubbing salt on Bubba Wallace’s wounds right now.
The house is crumbling
Everyone knew what a risk Michael Jordan was taking in October 2024. The 23XI Racing owner, along with Front Row Motorsports, did not sign the charter deal and also sued NASCAR. They risked losing their own security until a judge guaranteed them charter safety for 2025. In early June, however, a new three-panel judge slapped them with the claim: “You can’t have the cake and eat it too.” In other words, Jordan and Co. cannot sue NASCAR’s charter system and accrue its benefits as well. Hence, the preliminary injunction that guaranteed the teams’ safety has been overturned. An appeal against the same at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has also been in vain.
So technically, both 23XI Racing and Front Row could lose their charters by NASCAR’s Cup race in Dover. This would mean that Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick would be competing in open seats, stripped of the millions of dollars in benefits that charters bring. On being asked about the ordeal in June, Wallace directed comments at 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin. “Everything’s great. You know the answer already. You can let Denny [Hamlin] comment on that stuff. You’re not going to get an answer that you want to hear from me.” His teammate, Tyler Reddick, was also tight-lipped: “I’m just going to keep doing my part to try and show up as prepared as possible and continue winning races.”
Clearly, Bubba Wallace has a ton of other things to worry about than his ongoing rivalry. Hopefully, he pays heed to Kyle Busch’s golden advice and looks to clinch a playoff seat soon.
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