Chase Contenders Wallace, Byron Involved In Hard Crash With Bowman

A hard crash on Lap 77 of Sunday's Bank of America 400 eliminated two NASCAR Cup Series Chase contenders, Bubba Wallace and William Byron, from the race.

Bubba Wallace (23), Alex Bowman (48) and William Byron (24) are involved in a heavy crash on Lap 77 of the Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. | USA Network

Motorsport is a fickle sport. One moment, it could look like you're well on your way to a solid result. The next, something outside of your control could wipe everything out in an instant. That was the unfortunate result for a pair of Chase contenders, Bubba Wallace and William Byron, in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

On Lap 77 of the 267-lap race, Wallace, who had three consecutive top-10 finishes heading into the weekend, was running in the high lane in the fifth position and was trying to fend off Alex Bowman for position heading into Turns 1 and 2.

As the pair of drivers approached the exit of Turn 2, Bowman's car just snapped loose on him. Bowman would veer hard right into the left-rear quarter panel of Wallace's No. 23 Toyota, which would send the Chase contender hard into the outside wall.

A massive crash brings Stage 1 to a close.

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As Wallace skidded hard into the inside wall for an additional massive impact, Byron, who was running around the eighth position, had nowhere to go and was unable to avoid colliding with Bowman, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.

After being evaluated and released from the infield care center, Bowman shouldered the blame for the crash, which wiped out two Chase contenders.

"Yeah, just got loose. I honestly had been really tight, and I don't know. As soon as it got to the exit of the corner, it snapped, and kinda didn't stand a chance. Unfortunately, I grabbed too much wheel and overcorrected into those two guys' way," Bowman explained. "So, I hate that for our Ally 48 team. Obviously, we had a pretty fast car. And then I also hate that for the 23 and 24 cars. Like, just it's fine to get loose and crash, but to ruin their days too really sucks. Yeah, it's on me; I just didn't hang onto it well enough."

As Bowman suffered the issue to his inside, Wallace, who took several minutes to climb from his battered race car and gingerly walked from the scene of the crash, said he had no time to really brace for the crash.

"No warning. I seen it at the last second," Wallace stated. "The 48 came up and clipped us. No hard feelings; it's just racing. It's loose down there. I was starting to drop, and it gets into a tight spot."

As far as the two massive impacts Wallace took, he explained, "The first hit, wiped our brakes out. And so, the second hit got me good."

However, Wallace says he was cleared from the infield care center.

"But we're good. Still got nine fingers and nine toes, so we're all fine," Wallace joked.

Byron, who had more time to react to Bowman's misfortune, still wasn't able to avoid the carnage.

"Yeah, I just saw the 48 kind of get loose and overcorrect. I was just kind of running the top and lifted right away, but couldn't get low enough because he just came back off the wall," Byron explained.

Wallace, who entered the Chase as the No. 14 seed, had worked his way up to the 10th position in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase Grid after the opening five races of the Chase, where he had churned out some solid results. With a 37th-place result on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Wallace's hopes of rallying to win a championship are likely done.

Likewise, Byron, who suffered an engine failure at Darlington Raceway, the opening race of the Chase, had no margin for error on his hopeful path to a Cup Series title. Byron came into the race 12th in the championship standings, and will come away from Sunday's race with a last-place (39th) finish. That will all but eliminate Byron's title hopes as well.