“It happens every week”: Bubba Wallace’s spotter defends his driver’s controversial move on Alex Bowman 

Bubba Wallace's spotter Freddie Kraft has defended his driver's questionable cooldown lap move over Alex Bowman which received backlash from many people. According to Kraft, these occurrences are normal in the sport and happen nearly every race weekend. To advocate further for his driver, the spotter outlined Chase Elliott's run-in into Daniel Suarez's car after the Chicago race.

While Alex Bowman ended his 80-race winless draught after dominating the rain-shortened 58-lap dash on the Chicago Street Course, Bubba Wallace fell victim to a Stage 2 spin, courtesy of the #48 Chevrolet driver.

Bowman worked his way to use the faulty windshield wiper to clear off the water, but he missed the Turn 2 exit which snowballed into the #23 Toyota spinning out. As a result, Wallace succumbed to a 35th-place finish in the second stage while the Hendrick Motorsports driver was way up in second.

Bubba Wallace wasn't happy with Alex Bowman and expressed frustration after the latter sealed his eighth Cup Series win. During the cooldown laps, the 23XI Racing driver deliberately wrecked the HMS driver's right front, while the latter's window net was down.

Though the #48 Chevy driver apologized for wrecking the Alabama native and even claimed that the post-race wreck shouldn't be a penalty, the fanbase had a different take and bashed Wallace for his move which could've probably ended up hurting someone.

Seeing the criticism around his driver, Freddie Kraft defended Bubba Wallace and gave his two cents on the incident.

"I agree with Alex Bowman, shouldn't be a penalty. Cannot run into people under caution, cooldown laps especially. Unfortunately for the people that would like to throw Bubba out of the sport forever and ever and ever, it happens every week. It happened twice yesterday, Chase Elliott drives up and doors Daniel Suarez after the yellow flag. I didn't see anybody crying," Kraft said via Dirty Mo Media on X.

Similar to Wallace's move, Chase Elliott hit Daniel Suarez in the cooldown lap for their wrecking exchange during the race.

"It was plenty deserved"- Alex Bowman after getting wrecked during the cooldown lap by Bubba Wallace

Alex Bowman outlined how the chaotic restart and the malfunctioning wiper blade spun out Bubba Wallace's #23 Toyota Camry. The HMS driver kicked off his run from eighth place on the grid and climbed the charts for a sixth-place finish in Stage 1 and the runner-up spot in the second stage.

While running on Lap 25, not only did Bowman get entangled with the dysfunctional wiper, all four tires on his #45 Toyota got locked up, clipping the side of Bubba Wallace's ride and careening it into the wall.

Nevertheless, the race progressed and Bowman chased for the lead behind the then-frontrunner Joey Hand. The #48 Chevy driver then swerved past the #60 Ford on Lap 51 and didn't look back, dashing toward the victory lane. But before that, another single file restart reset the field but the HMS driver didn't lose his domination.

Post-race, Bowman reflected on what caused the displeasing incident with Wallace.

"The restart was chaotic. I just made every wrong decision I possibly could, and I was fighting with my windshield wiper switch trying to get the thing working and I couldn’t get it working. I was focused on that, missed the corner, and cleaned him out. I locked all four tires up and slid right into him. I just messed up and absolutely ruined his day, " Bowman said via NASCAR.

"He barely hit me, it was fine, and it was plenty deserved," the race winner added defending Bubba Wallace's post-race move.

Alex Bowman has locked his place into the playoffs while Bubba Wallace is currently in 15th place after his 13th-place finish at the Grand Park 165.