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23XI Racing Teammates Bubba Wallace, Riley Herbst Crash Out At Pocono In Virtually Identical Fashion

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
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Bubba Wallace

It’s pretty rare to see two NASCAR Cup Series drivers crash out of the same race in the exact same fashion. It’s even more atypical when the parties involved are teammates. That’s exactly what happened, though, with 23XI Racing drivers Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst on Sunday.

And, as a result, each driver had an early exit from The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway.

23XI Racing Teammates’ Tough Day Began With Huge Hit For Riley Herbst

Riley Herbst’s miserable season in the NASCAR Cup Series took another hit on Sunday — both literally and figuratively.

The rookie was not to blame, however.

An exploded brake rotor sent his 23XI Racing Toyota hard into the Turn 1 wall just 43 laps in. With the heavy impact, the No. 35 car suffered too much damage to continue and the driver’s day was done.

“It was a scary feeling, for sure,” said Herbst, whose DNF left him dead last in the 37-car field. “Getting into Turn 1, the brakes just went to the floor. A brake rotor exploded, and I was along for the ride.”

In 17 starts for the team co-owned by Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan, Herbst has yet to record a top-10 finish.

Bubba Wallace Joins 23XI Racing Teammate As Victim Of Faulty Brake Rotor

Just 11 laps after Riley Herbst’s accident caused by a brake rotor explosion, 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace experienced the same fate.

About the only difference between the two accidents? Herbst’s was in Turn 1. Wallace’s took place in Turn 2.

In both instances, it appeared at first that a tire failure might be the culprit. That proved not to be the case, however.

“I was going to battle the 17 (Chris Buescher) and the 2 (Austin Cindric), and by the time I was ready to touch the pedal, it just went to the floor and the brakes exploded,” Wallace said.

Wallace was running deep in the field at the time of his wreck, which left him with a DNF and a 36th-place finish. The outcome, of course, did nothing to aid his quest to make the playoffs.

“I hate it for my guys. I hate it for (primary sponsor) McDonald’s,” said Wallace, now just 29 points ahead of the playoff cutline. “We knew it was going to be a grind, and I was mentally prepared for that all day.

“As frustrating as it gets not being able to pass here in Pocono, we were going to just take our lumps and march our way through and set ourselves up for the end of the race, but the brakes just didn’t want to hang on that long.”

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
Jared Turner is a motorsports writer who has covered NASCAR for 20 years. He has interviewed over 20 NASCAR Hall of Famers and around 100 drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners, both past and present. He has also covered the sport for FOX Sports (where he was a two-time recipient of the FOX “X” Award for “Xtraordinary” job performance), NASCAR.com, Sporting News, NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, the SPEED network, and plenty of other online and print-only publications throughout his career. Notably, Jared has penned dozens of articles for NASCAR souvenir programs, including several featured prominently in Daytona 500 keepsakes. A Virginia Press Association award winner and former member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Jared has racked up accolades both for his writing and his academic work. He studied both Communication and Psychology at Virginia Tech, where he was permanently enshrined in Phi Beta Kappa — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Jared excels at feature writing and opinion writing, much of which stems from his dedication to all levels of racing.
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