"It's a fine": NASCAR Insider draws parallels between Carl Edwards-Dale Jr. incident and Bubba Wallace's controversial Chicago move

Bubba Wallace wasn't too pleased with Chicago race winner Alex Bowman for an incident earlier in the race. Wallace later hit Bowman's #48 Camaro, but at that point, the race was already over, and it was a cool-down lap with Bowman's window net down.

NASCAR insider Jeff Gluck believes that Bubba Wallace should be fined for the incident. He explained his thoughts on the recent episode of The Teardown podcast, where he referenced a similar incident from 2006 involving Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards.

"I think Bubba Wallace should be penalized, the window nets are down, it's the cooldown lap and it wasn't just like he came up and sort of rubbed him. I mean, he doored him and he put him into the fence. That's an unsafe thing and that's a fine," Gluck said. [31:10]

He recalled the 2006 Xfinity race at Michigan, where Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun out Carl Edwards. Edwards became enraged with Junior as a result, and he door-slammed him, for which he was fined $20,000 by NASCAR.

Gluck added, "That's a long ago precedent. But that's the thing where, 'Hey, it's a cooldown lap, driver is maybe starting to undo the belt or something, that's not safe.' To me, it's something that should be fined. I don't know if there's any points or suspension but you just fined Carson Hocevar $50,000 for spinning somebody out in a caution. You just put the race winner into the wall with his window net down? No, I'm sorry, it's a fine. It just what it is."

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Alex Bowman doesn't want NASCAR to penalize Bubba Wallace

Speaking after his first win of the season, Alex Bowman claimed that NASCAR shouldn't penalize Bubba Wallace. The #23 driver vented his frustration at Bowman after the latter made contact with him on lap 25, sending him spinning into the wall.

Wallace door-slammed Bowman on the cool-down lap, but according to Bowman, Wallace barely hit him. In fact, the Hendrick Motorsports driver justified Wallace's actions, adding that it was "plenty deserved" for him.

“I’d be mad, too. I ruined his day,” Bowman said. “I just messed up. I’ve been embarrassed about it since it happened. I tried to call him during the rain delay and I shot him a text," Bowman said as per NASCAR.

As for his mistake on lap 25, which led to him making contact with Bubba Wallace, the #48 driver claimed he made "every wrong decision" he could've possibly made.

According to Bowman, he had trouble getting his windshield wiper switch to operate. He was so focused on that that he failed to see the corner, locked all four of his tires, and hit Wallace. The Chicago winner acknowledged that he "messed up" and completely ruined Bubba Wallace's race.