Daytona Chaos: Freddie Kraft Takes Full Blame as Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin Clash Over ‘The Big One’

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona on Saturday delivered one of the season’s most dramatic moments when a massive crash unfolded just 27 laps into the first green flag run. The wreck, which swept up 12 cars, sparked immediate debate over who was at fault—Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, or Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft.

At first glance, replays suggested that Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet made contact with Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota, pushing him into Joey Logano’s Ford and triggering a chain reaction involving Kyle Busch and others. But in an unusual twist, Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft, openly shouldered responsibility for the incident.

Speaking on the Door, Bumper, Clear podcast, Kraft didn’t mince words:

“I f***ed up by not telling Bubba we were three-wide.”

Kraft explained that he had Wallace focused on lining up behind Larson for a push and failed to mention the critical three-wide situation that left no room for error. “We were too tight on Joey’s fender,” he added. “Once the #5 got to us, we got squirrely and never recovered. That’s on me—the #5 didn’t do anything wrong.”

Still, Kraft acknowledged that Larson’s light bump was the final spark, though not an aggressive move by any stretch. Even so, he repeated multiple times that the miscommunication and positioning were his fault, not Wallace’s.

Hamlin Points the Finger Elsewhere

While Kraft took the blame, Denny Hamlin—Wallace’s team co-owner at 23XI Racing and one of the drivers caught in the wreck—had a very different perspective. On his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin didn’t spare his driver from criticism.

“It looked to me that Bubba just squeezed those two guys below him down,” Hamlin said. “You could see two cars inside, and he wasn’t clear. Whether Freddie was calling it or not, Bubba squeezed them and wrecked himself—and a bunch of us in the process.”

Hamlin’s blunt comments highlighted the split views within the garage. While Kraft protected Wallace by admitting his failure, Hamlin insisted that Wallace’s decision-making was reckless and directly caused the pileup.

The Fallout

Regardless of who fans choose to blame—the spotter, the driver, or the circumstances—the result was the same: Bubba Wallace’s day ended prematurely in one of Daytona’s classic “Big Ones.” For a driver still chasing momentum in the playoff push, the crash was a costly blow.

The controversy, however, may linger longer than the wreck itself. Kraft’s honesty set him apart, but Hamlin’s willingness to call out his own driver shows that the debate over Daytona’s turning point is far from settled.

One thing is certain: in the high-speed chess match of superspeedway racing, one missed call or one miscalculation can take out half the field in an instant—and Daytona proved that yet again.