Dale Earnhardt Jr. Defends Bubba Wallace; Kyle Larson Earns Top NASCAR Cup Series Drivers’ Championship Odds

Upon first glance, it appeared that Bubba Wallace intentionally dumped a sputtering Kyle Larson with four laps remained at Darlington Raceway last Sunday. 

Wallace, who has a history of confrontation with the 2021 Cup champion, denied it. 

Larson admitted to breaking at an inopportune time. 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. backed up Wallace on his podcast, “Dale Jr. Download.”  

“(Larson) powered down so hard” while exiting Turn 2 and attempting to avoid collateral damage to Tyler Reddick crashing before him. Wallace could not avoid sending Larson into the wall for the second time Sunday. 

“Bubba spins Larson and you can see clearly as they’re exiting Turn 2, Larson just kind of powers down,” Earnhardt said. “I wonder why he did that? I know (Reddick crashed), but that was so far in front of him.  

“I’m watching it and I’m like, ‘He’s a long ways back. I wonder why he powered down so hard.’ He just (in the) middle of (turns) 1 and 2 kind of went by Bubba. So he knows Bubba is right on his right rear full steam.  

“(But) That was surprising. Everybody was like, ‘Oh, Bubba did it on purpose.’ But he did not.” 

Larson, who also crashed during the opening stages of the Goodyear 400, missed more than 150 laps while his No. 5 Chevrolet received repairs. His second collision paved the way for Denny Hamlin to capture this second consecutive event. 

After William Byron dominated the first two stages, leading the opening 243 laps, Ryan Blaney appeared to be cruising to Victory Lane after taking the lead from Reddick. But the final caution period pushed the race into overtime. 

Hamlin’s pit crew took over from there. It executed a four-tire change in 8.3 seconds to position the No. 11 Toyota to take the checkered flag off the final restart. 

Entering Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Larson (+400) earned the sports-betting odds to capture his second circuit title, according to BetOnline Sportsbook. Last week’s favorite, Christopher Bell (+450), fell to a second-place seeding. Byron and Hamlin were listed third at +600.

For those saying Bubba Wallace intentionally wrecked Kyle Larson. Data shows that Larson hit the brakes right before contact with Wallace. The previous lap Larson didn't use brake there. Blue is current lap, yellow is previous pic.twitter.com/8ZeMYFwct4

— Auto Racing Analytics (@AR_Analytics) April 6, 2025

2025 NASCAR Cup Series Drivers’ Championship Odds 

Here is a Week 9 look at the drivers’ odds for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series championship odds, according to BetOnline Sportsbook:  

*-Odds current at time of publication