NASCAR star calls for Cup Series rival to RETIRE

For Bubba Wallace it was unthinkable, retirement-worthy even, as he endured a miserable NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at New Hampshire on Saturday.

The 31-year-old 23XI Racing superstar claimed 14th position on the grid for Sunday’s Mobil 1 301, but that wasn’t even being close to the worst thing that happened.

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Four places in front of Bubba was road-course bully Shane van Gisbergen, cracking the top 10, on an oval.

Bubba Wallace reveals SvG 'wager'

This was the trigger for SvG to remind Wallace about a wager the pair appear to have made - basically Bubba would have to retire if van Gisbergen EVER unqualified him on an oval.

Wallace shared their back and forth on his social media accounts, and it went like this:

SvG: I haven’t seen your retirement post.

Wallace: Haha what post?

SvG: “If you ever out qualify me on an oval, I’m retiring”

It was at this point that the brutal reality hit for Bubba as he responded with three skull emojis and ‘f***’. The game was absolutely up. He accompanied the exchange with the message: "Ole bloke out-qualified me now I gotta retire @shanevg97".

Van Gisbergen’s struggles on ovals were brought into sharp focus during the first stage of the Cup Series playoffs, as he went from a seemingly comfortable position to an exit in the Round of 16. It was a fall so spectacular that it actually made NASCAR history.

Wallace now facing Cup Series exit

This came after a regular season where the 36-year-old New Zealander had blitzed absolutely everybody on road courses, claiming four consecutive and dominant victories.

As for Bubba, he is also now in very real danger of making a playoff exit in the Round of 12 after finishing 26th in Sunday’s race. He is in last position, 27 points below the cutline, heading to Kansas next weekend.

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