{"id":23343,"date":"2019-02-14T15:50:44","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T21:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=23343"},"modified":"2019-02-15T19:45:27","modified_gmt":"2019-02-16T01:45:27","slug":"bubba-wallace-returns-to-daytona-for-another-shot-at-the-great-american-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/14\/bubba-wallace-returns-to-daytona-for-another-shot-at-the-great-american-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Bubba Wallace returns to Daytona for another shot at The Great American Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Bubba Wallace<\/strong> made his first trip \u2013 ever – to Disney World this week visiting the amusement park – located an hour and a half south of Daytona Beach – with his good buddy and fellow Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> driver Ryan Blaney.<\/p>\n

\"\"

NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace speaks with the media during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 61st Annual Daytona 500 Media Day at Daytona International Speedway on February 13, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

They rode the famous rides, saw Cinderella\u2019s Castle, watched Star Wars light saber duels \u2013 all the things that make the Disney World experience such an iconic part of our culture. <\/p>\n

In some ways, it was a perfectly fitting day-off venture. Wallace, 25, returns to what may be his own Magic Kingdom, Daytona International Speedway, for Sunday\u2019s season-opening Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). A year ago on these storied 2.5-mile high banks, Wallace simultaneously made sporting history and made good on a lifetime of personal pursuit – that he was ready and able to make it at NASCAR\u2019s highest level.<\/p>\n

Shortly after climbing out of his car, after finishing runner-up in his very first version of NASCAR\u2019s Super Bowl, Wallace attended a press conference where his emotions were raw and overwhelming. His work was the highest ever finish for an African-American in the Daytona 500.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/D500_MediaDay_Wallace_021319.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

But equally as important to Wallace, his work resulted in a noted and grand arrival \u2013 his. He proved that he absolutely belonged in the sport and could compete on the biggest stage door-to-door with the best there is. And succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just try so hard to be successful at everything I do, and my family pushes me each and every day, and they might not even know it, but I just want to make them proud,” Wallace said, pausing to wipe away tears of raw emotion as he sat at the interview podium last February. \u201cSecond is horrible, but it’s still a good day.<\/p>\n

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Bubba Wallace, driver of the #43 Aftershokz Chevrolet, during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 61st Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 9, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

In the days leading up to last year\u2019s Daytona 500, baseball legend Hank Aaron called and Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton tweeted to Wallace \u2013 they wished good luck and offered a proverbial pat on the back for the journey he was embarking on. Both Aaron and Hamilton prevailing against the odds too.<\/p>\n

After the race and the incredible result, Wallace\u2019s team owner, NASCAR Hall of Famer and the sport\u2019s biggest icon, Richard Petty was all smiles \u2013 as proud as he has looked in many years.<\/p>\n

Wallace\u2019s mother Desiree Wallace remembers that day well too. Her son paused in the middle of his post-race press conference to embrace and thank her \u2013 one of the most moving and emotional Daytona 500 moments in recent memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at it like triumph, it\u2019s like we finally made it,” Desiree Wallace said last week reflecting on the moment. \u201cHe was like, \u2018Mom, you act like I won.\u2019 And I said, \u2018you did win baby, you did win.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like I felt like at that moment he won the heart of so many people that night, not just the black community but every one of every color. It was very moving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought back to where he had come from, all the teams, why was it so hard for my son to get sponsorship and then for him just to be in the Daytona 500 then to finish second and be sitting up here on this podium. He did win.”<\/p>\n

For most of us in many ways, it could legitimately be considered victory. But for Bubba, it was more positive motivation \u2013 not an end result.<\/p>\n

Even while answering reporters\u2019 questions in the days leading up to this year\u2019s Daytona 500, Wallace frequently \u2013 very frequently \u2013 reminded that technically a runner-up isn\u2019t a \u201cwin.\u201d The second-place finish in last year\u2019s Daytona 500 was encouraging, historic and emotional.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t fully satisfying because it wasn\u2019t a win. Yet<\/p>\n

And maybe it\u2019s because Wallace is so focused on the big prize that he has been so successful \u2013 that\u2019s he\u2019s earned opportunity and to date, managed to capitalize at every level.<\/p>\n

He and his Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team are optimistic the results will begin to match the effort put forth. They acknowledge, however, that finishing runner-up in his first Daytona 500 set the bar \u2013 perhaps unfairly \u2013 high for Wallace.<\/p>\n

Wallace\u2019s seventh place qualifying effort and runner-up finish at Daytona were the high mark of his rookie season. He added another top-10 at Texas Motor Speedway six weeks after the Daytona 500 and closed out the year with a top-10 in Phoenix just before the season finale. And he led laps in five races.<\/p>\n

At Daytona International Speedway, Wallace has never finished worse than 15th in three Cup starts \u2013 an encouraging statistic considering the close-quarter restrictor plate racing at the track.<\/p>\n

It all bodes well for Wallace this week. He has a new crew chief in Derek Stamets \u2013 who moves into the role after serving as an engineer on the team.<\/p>\n

And the one thing that is certain, is there are plenty of people eager to see Wallace succeed.<\/p>\n

His mother still remembers the early days when Wallace was often the only driver of color in a race, perhaps even at the race track. Her son\u2019s work in the Daytona 500 last year was a huge step forward in believing that while it is fair and heartwarming to feel good about Wallace\u2019s accomplishments now, soon his skin color won\u2019t even be a topic.<\/p>\n

She recalled a race in Richmond, Va. years ago \u2013 a race Wallace won \u2013 and the crowd that lingered afterward to offer congratulations \u2013 many of them African American.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him, this is your purpose to make more of a diverse crowd in NASCAR,” Desiree Wallace said. \u201cThat was a pivotal moment for me. Of all these people watching my son race. .. sometimes I would be the only black person around. I\u2019d get a kick out people coming up and asking, \u2018are you Bubba\u2019s mom?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a pivotal moment for me and I thought, maybe God is going to use him for a bigger stage.<\/p>\n

Wallace smiled and acknowledged the good will and shared a story from his own recent vacation. He and his longtime girlfriend Amanda and their friends were sitting in the airport in Hawaii waiting at the gate to make their return trip to North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sitting there and had a Petty [team] pullover just sitting on top of a bag,” Wallace said. \u201cA Hawaiian guy just walks up and says, \u2018Are you Bubba Wallace? I\u2019m a big Bubba Wallace fan, my son and I go to a bunch of races.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we\u2019re in Hawaii and I get noticed? Pretty cool.”<\/p>\n

Wallace should get used to it. Young, well-liked, talented and poised, Wallace is exactly the front man the sport is excited to promote.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s impossible to \u201ccall his shot\u201d and promise another thrilling finish in Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500, Wallace does insist that he couldn\u2019t be more prepared for the spotlight\u2019s glare, the trophy hoist, the feeling that\u2019s he\u2019s come a long way and made it. And for sure, he is trying to enjoy the journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing into the season last year we were like there is no way in hell that we would finish second in my first Daytona 500 attempt,” Wallace recalled. \u201cI thought I would go out there and cause \u2018the big one\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou try your hardest not to, but it\u2019s there. So, to be able to do that and to be able to come out almost on top pushing the No. 3 [Austin Dillon] to Victory Lane was pretty cool, pretty special.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people hyped this story up as coming back as \u2018oh you are going to do it again\u2019. It\u2019s like, let\u2019s pump the brakes, let\u2019s get through the rest of the week and let\u2019s make it to lap 199, let\u2019s stop and have a break and do an interview on that last lap and see if we have a shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I make it to 199, hell yeah, I\u2019m going to go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Bubba Wallace made his first trip \u2013 ever – to Disney World this week visiting the amusement park – located an hour and a half south of Daytona Beach – with his good buddy and fellow Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney. They rode […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":23346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[414,42,287,16],"class_list":["post-23343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-bubba-wallace","tag-daytona-500","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/360072.jpg?fit=3917%2C2612&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-64v","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23347,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23343\/revisions\/23347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}