Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman shared fenders several times as they battled for seventh place late during Sunday’s Cup Series race at the Chicago Street Circuit. Although it was Bowman who delivered the better placing in the end, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was expecting a cleaner finish coming off of Turn 12.

However, Bowman wasn’t sure what he could have done differently. Riding on fresher tires, the speedster passed Wallace clean, following Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Toyota. And that’s when things started going southward.

“We just sort of pinballed off of each other, and he ended up on the worse side of it, but we’re just trying to go straight off the corner. I don’t know why we did that,” Bowman said, reflecting on his tussle with Bubba Wallace (via NBC Sports). “I wasn’t expecting that to happen or to get raced like that, but we did.”

Both Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace are vying for their maiden wins of the 2025 season. Winning a points-paying race will qualify them for the playoffs. But they have just seven weeks to do that.

“We just have to move on from it and keep digging. I don’t really know what I could have done much differentl. I just got into the fence there, and you’re kind of along for the ride. It’s just frustrating,” Bowman added.

While Alex Bowman delivered a P8, his 10th top-10 of the season, Bubba Wallace settled for a disappointing P28 finish. Thanks to his higher finishing position, Bowman will advance into Round 3 of NASCAR’s In-Season Tournament.

Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace seen discussing their late-race shenanigans

After Sunday’s race at Chicago was over, Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman were seen speaking about their late-race tussle. The fans were expecting a heated exchange, but from the footage that Matt Moreno captured, the drivers seemed to be in good spirits.

Here is the video posted by Moreno on X with the caption:

Bubba Wallace with some words after the #NASCAR race in Chicago.

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However, while speaking with the reporters, Bowman said that it was Wallace’s doing. It seems that Wallace ran Bowman into the wall while the latter was trying to trail Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 past Wallace’s ride.

“I followed the 45 [Tyler Reddick] past him, he ran me into the inside wall into Turn 8,” Bowman explained. “Still felt like I passed him clean, and he absolutely demolished me into Turn 12. I gave it back a little into Turn 1, and then he demolished me again into Turn 2, ran me into the outside wall.”

Next up for the drivers is the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. Scheduled for Sunday, July 13, the 110-lap event will be televised on TNT Sports, 3:30 pm ET onwards. Fans can also listen to exclusive radio updates on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.