Wallace had led 29 laps and clearly had a fast car in the opening race of the third round of the playoffs. Wallace did not qualify for the playoffs, and Larson was eliminated last week.
Bell, who will be scored 34th on Sunday and likely drop to last in the eight-driver playoff standings, said “we got the short end of the stick” with Larson and Wallace tangling.
“It’s disappointing because our performance is capable of racing for the championship, and it doesn’t appear that we’re going to get to,” he said.
The incident began when Larson attempted a three-wide pass - Kevin Harvick in the middle dropped out of the bunch - and Larson slid up the track against Wallace. When Wallace didn't lift to give Larson any room, Larson used his Chevrolet to shove Wallace's Toyota into the wall.
Wallace then bounced back down the track, followed Larson's car down to the apron and appeared to deliberately hook him in retaliation. That sent Larson spinning into the path of Bell, who won last Sunday at Charlotte to earn the automatic berth into the round of eight, and ended Bell's race.
Wallace climbed from his car and marched his way 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.
NBC Sports’ Marty Snider read a comment to Wallace from Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels that accused Wallace of retaliating against Larson. Wallace replaced: “Cliff is smart enough to know how easy these cars breaks. When you get shoved into the fence like deliberately like he did, trying to force me to lift, the steering was gone.
“Hate it. Hate it for my team. … Larson wanted to make it a three-wide dive bomb. Never cleared me. I don’t lift. I know I’m kind of new running up front, but I don’t lift. Wasn’t even in a spot to lift, and he never lifted either and now we’re junk. Just a piss-poor move on his execution.”
Later, Wallace was asked by the media outside the care center if he retaliated against Larson. Wallace said: “Just racing, right. Just have to do better, be better.”
After exiting the infield care center, Larson told Snider: “I obviously made an aggressive move into (Turn)n 3 and got in low and got loose and chased it up a bit. He got to my right front and it got him tight and into the wall.
“I knew he was going to retaliate. He had a reason to be mad. His race wasn’t over until he retaliated. It is what it is. Just aggression turned into frustration and he retaliated.”
Larson later was asked by the media if he was surprised by Wallace’s physical response.
“I would rather have him done that rather than just tear up both of our cars.”
Larson admitted that Wallace had reason to be upset with him.
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