NASCAR suspends Bubba Wallace one race for Las Vegas fracas

NASCAR suspended Bubba Wallace for the upcoming race at Miami-Homestead on Tuesday after he spun reigning champion Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway over the weekend and then confronted him afterward.

NASCAR classified Wallace's infraction as behavioral, which per the rule book could cover Wallace deliberately spinning Larson, his contact with a series official and his shoving match with Larson.

Wallace, who is the first Cup Series driver to be suspended for an on-track incident since 2015, will miss Sunday's race in South Florida.

Like Larson, Wallace had already been eliminated from the championship chase when the two clashed during Lap 94 of Sunday's race. Larson attempted a three-wide pass, and Kevin Harvick in the middle dropped out of the bunch. Larson slid up the track toward Wallace, who did not lift to give Larson any room. Larson then shoved Wallace's Toyota into the wall.

Wallace had led 29 laps in a car he believed was capable of winning and reacted by following Larson's car down to the apron, where he seemed to deliberately hook him in the right-rear corner as retaliation. That sent Larson spinning into the path of Christopher Bell, a title contender who is part of the Toyota camp with Wallace.

It ended Bell's race and dropped him to last in the eight-driver playoff standings.

Wallace, meanwhile, climbed from his car and marched his way on the track toward Larson. Wallace was shouting before he even got to Larson and immediately began to shove the smaller driver.

Larson tried to turn away from him and several times lifted his arms to block Wallace's shoves, but Wallace got in multiple shots before a NASCAR safety worker separated the two.

Wallace on Monday night apologized «for my actions'' in a social