Daytona Beach, Florida (AP) – Bubba Wallace promised to try to “enjoy the little things” this season. He showed himself in Victory Lane.
“Can I get a Rolex for this one?” Wallace joked, referring to what the winners receive after the Rolex 24 in Daytona Sports Car Race.
Wallace, driving the Toyota n ° 23 for 23xi Racing, won the first of the two qualification races Thursday for the next Daytona 500. He showed enough speed to make him one of the favorites before “The Great American Race”.
“Guy, what night,” said Wallace. “I wanted one of these duel victories for so long.”
Wallace will now start the third in Daytona 500 on Sunday, behind the Pole-Sitter Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric. Wallace’s victory continued Toyota’s first domination at Daytona International Speedway, where Briscoe won the post during his new race round Joe Gibbs.
Wallace, 31, celebrated his first victory in Daytona by spraying a coke in his crew, hugging Denny Hamlin, who is 23xi co-owner with the temple of renowned professional basketball Michael Jordan, then Raising his newborn in the air to the “the king of the lion”. The baby wore protective headphones and a checkered bib while sucking a pacifier.
Wallace and his wife Amanda welcomed Becks Hayden Wallace at the end of September. Wallace said he “lost it by leaving the stands” while carrying his 4 -month -old son. He found himself shedding more tears while collapsing in victory with his family.
“It’s the coolest thing to have a child,” said Wallace. “You never know if you are ready. I regret not having a earlier. He brought so much joy and new perspective. I feel like I walk lighter because of him. Four months, and he has already changed my life.
Wallace spoke openly about the battles spent with its mental health. And coming to Daytona gave more stress than successful, Wallace being 0 for 15 in races in Daytona – although he finished second twice in the opening of season 500.
“Tired of talking about it,” he joked.
“I felt like every time I got attached to a racing car in Daytona 500, I was able to win and just things did not work like that,” said Wallace, who finished in the Top 15 In 12 of its 15 departures in Daytona. “I don’t think there is once I didn’t feel that. You must present yourself and have this motivation and this passion that you will win. But you should also put yourself in the right place.
This almost happened in 2018 and 2022, but Wallace failed in both Daytona 500.
“I think you have to crawl before you can walk,” he said. “Second place, I guess I didn’t hold enough. So maybe victory in duel is. Now we can put ourselves in a little better place.
“I have the impression that we did almost everything. But almost everything is not good enough to win the 500. It must be perfect, and we really have to focus on how to do this and when this moment comes in the same place here on Sunday. “”
Wallace said a day earlier that he “does not care” if President Donald Trump attended the Daytona 500. Trump accused the only black driver of the full -time series ” a hoax Five years ago, when a crew member found a node flowing in the team’s garage stand.
Trump suggested in July 2020 that Wallace should apologize after sport has rallied to him after the discovery of the knot flowing in his stand assigned to Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Federal authorities judge That the flowing knot had been suspended since October and was not a crime of hatred. NASCAR and the FBI have referred exclusively to the rope – which was used to pull the door from the closed garage – as a flowing knot.
Wallace refused to say a lot about the possibility that Trump could return to Nascar’s greatest race as an in -office for the second time.
“We are here to run,” said Wallace. “Not for the show.”
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