TALLADEGA, ALABAMA - OCTOBER 04: Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald's Toyota, celebrates in the Ruoff Mortgage victory lane after winning the rain-shortened NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 04, 2021 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)Bubba Wallace game up literal inches short of winning the Daytona 500 to kick off the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series.
In the final stretch, Wallace was two lengths off of Austin Cindric and seemed to find his opening as Cindric moved right to block another racer. But Cindric kept the pace up just long enough to beat Wallace to the checkered flag – edging him out by less than half a length.
After the race, Wallace was asked to comment on his second-place finish. He congratulated Cindric for his win and admitted he felt a little dejected by his inability to cross first.
“That’s pretty damn cool to win the 500 in your first season, congrats to Austin. What could’ve been, right? Just dejected but the thing that keeps me going is the hard work that we put in our team,” Wallace said.
Bubba Wallace is P2 today: "That's pretty damn cool to win the 500 in your first season, congrats to Austin. What could've been, right? Just dejected but the thing that keeps me going is the hard work that we put in our team."
— PRN (@PRNlive) February 20, 2022
Bubba Wallace had a lot of momentum going into this season. He had three top 10 finishes in the second half of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series and secured his first win at the 2021 YellaWood 500. He finished ranked 21st – the highest finish of his career.
There’s no guarantees in a sport like NASCAR though. Coming close in the Daytona 500 doesn’t mean he’ll have a similar finish in the upcoming WISE Power 400.
But Wallace isn’t going anywhere for a long time. Knowing him, he’ll be getting a post-race victory interview pretty soon.
Will Bubba Wallace win a race this season?
