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USA Today via Reuters

USA Today via Reuters

Bubba Wallace secured a respectful P5 finish in the first points race of the season at the Daytona 500. It was far from his best performance on the track; instead, there were a few mistakes that crept in. But fortunately for him and his team, it all turned out pretty well. In the final rounds of green flag pit stops, Wallace’s No. 23 didn’t get enough fuel to last the race. This forced him and his team to drop out of the pack, which resulted in losing out on track position. Luckily for him, just as he ducked out for the refuel, a total of 23 cars piled up in a gruesome wreck. Talk about luck! However, Wallace is aware of his shortcomings and is looking to weed them out going forward in the season.

Bubba Wallace looking to learn from his mistakes at Daytona 500

On the final restart of the race, Wallace started in 14th, and by putting his foot on the gas, he managed to find himself amongst the leading pack. During the final few laps, another incident sparked up, but this time it was Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric spiraling off track, which forced a race-ending caution. Willaim Byron was the one who took home the white flag and the win, while Wallace secured himself a decent P5 finish.

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Speaking after the race to Peter Strata, he talked about his mistakes as well as getting lucky with the finish. “We got lucky with that wreck because we have to come back down and fill it up and our race was over with. We gave up all that track position so that’s unfortunate but I’m so proud of the team. Mistakes happen, but I told those guys already. The good teams win races, the teams that make mistakes don’t, so hopefully we can learn from it and just be better and see what we can do but good way to start the year off the top five.”

Wallace was in the lead during stage 1 of the race for a brief period but was soon swarmed by the hunting pack of Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, and Chase Elliot. It was a constant shuffle for his Toyota Camry XSE in terms of maintaining the pace with the top ten cars. But the expected big one at the Daytona International Speedway during the dying moment turned the tides in his favor.

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With the Daytona 500 done, Wallace is now geared up to improve his track record at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

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Wallace and his team prepared for Atlanta challenge

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Road courses have proved to be a tough nut to crack for Bubba Wallace and his team. In his last three races at Atlanta, he has been unable to secure a top-ten finish. In fact, he had a poor show of performance at the venues last season and ended up with a P27 finish. Given that Wallace and his team are aiming for a better result this season, this shortcoming will need to be dealt with. Going by his words, it looks like his team has got a plan handy that will break the streak of mediocre results at the Amber Health 400.

“I think we’re going to make up for what we didn’t do here as a field, as a group. I hope it goes just as smooth and we know we’re capable of doing. We just haven’t put the last three races there together, got some work to do on our end, got a couple days figured out and go have some fun.” Wallace went onto add.

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Call it luck or a good day at the office, Wallace has made a good start to his campaign. However, whether he will be able to build momentum on the back of this good result remains to be seen.

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