Bubba Wallace on Martinsville’s Softer Bumpers: ‘It’s a Bad Way to Race’

Bubba Wallace knows the bumper will come into play at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, but he does not want to be the first to find out what NASCAR’s softer short-track bumpers can take.The 23XI Racing driver talked about the bumpers in the media pen Saturday. Braking Bob shared the video on X.“I think it’ll be a different perspective and we have to appreciate it. It’ll still be chaotic, it’s Martinsville”Bubba Wallace on the aggressive racing this weekend will stick around now that Martinsville isn’t an “elimination” race#NASCARpic.twitter.com/K0UphpgOkz— Braking Bob (@BrakingBob) October 31, 2026“I don’t know. I don’t want to be the first one to use it,” Wallace said. “Hopefully we’ll have somebody watching how hard they move somebody and what the damage is, but it’s different.”“I get it, the restart stack-ups, they’re brutal in these cars. Man, you get hit from behind, you see black for a second; that’s not good,” he added.Why NASCAR Softened the BumpersIn June, NASCAR removed the energy-absorbing foam from the front and rear bumper structures for four short-track races. Teams also had to change the front bumper struts.The package was already used at North Wilkesboro, Richmond and Bristol. Martinsville is the last of the four.The change followed criticism that the Next Gen car could take big hits from behind without damage. Now, a hard shove could cost a driver a radiator.Wallace said that does not change how drivers have to pass at the half-mile track.“But you know that is for once you are going, once we’re racing, like using the bumpers; that’s how you pass in these cars, especially here, because our mid-corner section is so high,” Wallace said.“Like it’s a bad way to race, but there’s no other way to move somebody besides: shove them off into the corner or hit them square in the middle of the corner, so yeah, we’ll see,” he continued, in comments transcribed by EssentiallySports.Wallace is not the only driver thinking about it. Chase Briscoe has said a lot of the bumper changes were made with Martinsville in mind. He also said it would not surprise him if a radiator gets knocked out on Sunday.Wallace Starts 15th at MartinsvilleWallace starts 15th in the No. 23 Toyota. He is 13th in the Chase standings, 218 points behind leader Kyle Larson, and is no longer able to win the title.He is still racing for a win and for position in the standings. But like everyone else, he will have to decide how hard he can push the car in front of him without hurting his own.Martinsville opened in 1947 and is one of the oldest tracks in American motorsports. Sunday’s race is the first there with the new bumpers.