“Racing sucks sometimes”: Denny Hamlin reacts to Bubba Wallace’s back-to-back DNFs 

23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin opined on his driver Bubba Wallace's double whammy after the latter became the victim of two back-to-back DNFs, the most recent one coming at the Wurth 400.

The GEICO 500 held at the Talladega Superspeedway witnessed 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick seal his first victory this season. At the same time, his teammate Wallace succumbed to a brutal Lap 157 crash with Erik Jones' #43 Toyota.

While the seven Camrys drafted behind each other, a slight push from John Hunter Nemechek birthed a domino effect, dragging Wallace, Jones, and Denny Hamlin's #11 Toyota into the mess.

The next run at the Dover Motor Speedway went pristine for the JGR driver as he successfully sealed his third win of the season, but not for Bubba Wallace. The 30-year-old was once on the receiving end of misfortune, courtesy of a three-wide battle with Reddick on Lap 329 spin that saw his #23 Toyota collecting several cars and ending the weekend with a DNF.

Highlighting disastrous weekends of his driver, Hamlin outlined how "racing sucks sometimes," keeping in mind Wallace's three top-5s and contentious runs lately. He said (via Dirty Mo Media on X) [0.09]:

"He's [Bubba Wallace] just gotten so used to running up front, being at the top. He's a top-10 guy now for sure, every week, he's upfront. So when you have weeks like this, it's like, 'Dang it. I just was on a good run and momentum, I was getting good finishes, and then BAM 2 DNFs in a row like that.'"

"It's just racing sucks sometimes, it's sometimes your competition can take you out when you make no mistakes," Denny Hamlin added.

Denny Hamlin defends Tyler Reddick's questionable move over Wallace with "that's our job" claim

After losing the battle for contention against the #45 Toyota, Bubba Wallace paid the price with his second consecutive DNF. Many opined that Zane Smith's #71 Chevrolet was several laps down, and the massive pile-up ensued because he didn't give an easy pass to the lead cars.

Nevertheless, the notion that circled in the paddock was that the teammates fought a close three-wide battle but Reddick didn't consider Wallace's track position while paving the way for his contention. However, Denny Hamlin defended his driver as he believed that "Dover's just a weird place" and Reddick might not have seen Wallace in hindsight at all.

During the Actions Detrimental Podcast, the JGR driver said:

"Should Tyler say oh I'm not going to go three wide I'm not going to take this run because Bubba's in the next lane I would say no because I do it to my teammates they do it to me because that's our job."

"Dover's just a weird place where it's it's tough to go three wide especially through the first corner there it's always a little sketchy for sure. I think it's a 50-50 shot that he actually knew Bubba is in the next lane up," Hamlin added.

Denny Hamlin is currently in fourth place in the Drivers' standings, just above Tyler Reddick, while Bubba Wallace is 15th.