”It doesn’t curb the retaliation”: Bubba Wallace pulls no punches in his verdict on NASCAR’s updated policy

Bubba Wallace has bluntly opined that NASCAR's new waiver policy won't deter drivers from racing hard on the asphalt. The 23XI Racing star expressed the learnings from his most recent chaos at the Martinsville Speedway, emphasizing that only penalties would curb the retaliation.

NASCAR has announced a plethora of rulebook changes, and the playoff waiver policy has undergone a major overhaul. Now, any driver who fails to mark their presence in a regular season race can get a playoff waiver, upon the sanctioning body's discretion.

However, except for age-related factors and medical situations, the waiver would result in forfeiture of the already collected playoff points. In other cases like a suspension for retaliation, the driver may get the playoff grant, but they wouldn't be allowed to kick off the 10-race slate with more than 2000 points.

Ahead of the Daytona 500, 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace declared that the waiver won't curb retaliation and that the penalties should.

"The new waiver policy doesn't curb the retaliation part. I think the penalties that were set in place should curb that...It's up to the other drivers to pay attention to what the penalties are, so you're not put in this situation, but the waiver policy, that shouldn't change," Wallace told Fox: NASCAR (via Bob Pockrass' X) (0:19).

The Alabama native acknowledged learning from the harsh penalty imposed on him following the Martinsville controversy.

What happened with Bubba Wallace at the Martinsville Speedway

Bubba Wallace was at the centre of the Martinsville controversy, receiving a hefty $100,000 penalty and loss of 50 driver points. Even though the two-time Cup Series race winner claimed there was nothing wrong on his part, the officials deemed that the #23 Toyota driver's act violated the rules.

“We can all agree to disagree. Is what it is. We’re here at Phoenix. But at the same time, our team is Tyler and the 45 group have worked their ass off to put themselves in a spot to go for a championship. So, for us to make the decision not to appeal, I didn’t agree with that, but I understood once they kind of broke it down," Wallace said via Bob Pockrass' X.

Wallace was punished for deliberately reducing his Camry's pace in the closing laps of the XFINITY 500 to help his Toyota teammate Christopher Bell punch his Championship Race ticket.

Bell did qualify for the Phoenix race but because he rode the wall on the final lap, he was stripped from the Championship 4, paving the way for William Byron's title fight. The move was deemed illegal by NASCAR after Ross Chastain's 2022 move on the same speedway

It's worth mentioning that Bubba Wallace's illegal act proved costly for 23XI Racing's owners. Like the penalty imposed on the #23 driver, NASCAR levied a $100,000 fine and docked 50 owner points, which impacted the organization's standings as Tyler Reddick was already in the championship race.