Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman have a history. And like most bad relationships, it seems destined to play out in public, loudly, and preferably with the odd body panel left dangling as a reminder.
Sunday’s Grant Park 165 on the mean streets of Chicago delivered exactly that — a good old-fashioned grudge match with a modern twist of bracket-style NASCAR drama. The two drivers, seeded eighth (Bowman) and ninth (Wallace) in the In-Season Challenge tournament, spent the late stages of the race locked in a battle that looked less like racing and more like a demolition derby at 100 miles an hour.
It all boiled over on Lap 70, as the pair fought tooth-and-nail for seventh place. Bowman, on fresher tires and apparently fresher patience, had been harassing Wallace for several laps — the latest round in what’s becoming their annual street-fighting tradition. The bumping started early and escalated like a bad bar argument, with Wallace eventually finding himself spun down DuSable Lakeshore Drive after Bowman got into the back of his No. 23 Toyota exiting Turn 2.
SVG Does What The Cubs Can’t—Pulls Off A Perfect Chicago Weekend
The result? Bowman carried on to finish eighth, while Wallace’s Toyota limped to the garage five laps down with a broken toe link, a 28th-place finish, and likely a fresh wave of fury.
“I thought we had squashed our beef, but clearly we’ve not,” Bowman said, which is a polite way of saying ‘this isn’t over.’
Bowman’s version of events paints a picture of two drivers playing bumper cars with grown-up consequences. He described following Tyler Reddick past Wallace, only to be squeezed into the inside wall at Turn 8. Moments later, Wallace allegedly “demolished” Bowman in Turn 12. Bowman responded with a little tap in Turn 1 — standard street racing etiquette — before the whole thing turned into a pinball game exiting Turn 2.
“Certainly not trying to crash anybody,” Bowman insisted, as every NASCAR driver who’s ever punted someone into the scenery has also said. “I’d have to watch it back to be certain, but I felt like he did it to himself because I kept pinballing between him and the outside wall. Wasn’t the intention.”
If this all sounds familiar, it should. Last year’s Chicago Street Race saw Wallace turned sideways off the nose of Bowman’s No. 48 Chevy, though that time he at least salvaged 13th while Bowman went on to win the whole thing. Wallace’s frustration boiled over post-race with a door-slap to Bowman’s car on the cooldown lap — a $50,000 expression of displeasure, courtesy of NASCAR.
After Sunday, it’s safe to say the Bowman-Wallace saga remains one of the more entertaining subplots in a season full of elbows-out racing. And with both drivers still alive in the In-Season Challenge, odds are good we’ve not seen the last chapter yet.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
- Kyle Larson vs. Ryan Blaney is NASCAR’s Bromance With Bodywork - September 7, 2025
- From Vegas High to Gateway Low: Josh Berry’s Playoff Freefall - September 7, 2025
- Two Teammates, Two Very Different Nights at Darlington - August 31, 2025