Aric Almirola was frustrated with how Bubba Wallace raced him during the early portion of Monday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and proceeded to show it with his actions during a rain delay.
Almirola was captured shoving Wallace on pit road, which followed a healthy exchange of words.
You can check it out here:
A longer version of the video shows Wallace getting into Almirola’s face and poking him in the chest after the shove. The two continued their screaming and shouting for about a minute and a half, with Almirola again having to be held back before cooler heads ultimately prevailed.
“Just early in the race, I felt like I was running him pretty clean and I felt like he was racing me pretty dirty,” Almirola told reporters of their Stage 2 interactions, per NASCAR. “He ran me all over the race track and then he got by me and he shot me the bird so I just went to ask him, ‘Why are you throwing me the bird?’ Like I gave him a lot of room and gave him a lot of respect and he started mouthing off and just saying a lot of bad things and cussing.”
Wallace simply attributed the altercation as being “passionate.”
Wallace claimed fourth in the Coca-Cola 600 while Almirola finished 25th. Both failed to chase down Ryan Blaney, who took the checkered flag, erasing a 59-race winless drought in the process.
