Ahead of the Cup Series race at the Auto Club Speedway, Bubba Wallace appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Live talk show. Over there, he talked about a number of subjects. Among them, he cast his mind back to the season-opening Daytona 500 and how he came really close to winning the race. Funnily enough, this isn’t the first time he has finished as the runner-up at the Daytona 500.
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He said, “So I finished 2nd in my first Daytona 500 in 2018. I was a wrecking ball of emotion, super cool, pumped. Like, ‘Ahhh! We finished 2nd! Awesome!’. Now, I was p*ssed, I was ready to rip somebody’s head off after this one. The first time, I was two car lengths back, that is maybe a second back. This one, being that close, coming off of Turn 4, which is probably two football fields away from the start-finish line. I’m like, ‘Damn! We’re not going to win. We’re going to finish 2nd or third, then it came down to that.'”
What next for Bubba Wallace in the 2022 NASCAR Cup season?
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On the bright side, the 23XI Racing driver knows that the season is long. So, this gives him plenty of opportunities to try and bag another win. The driver got a bit of criticism for his Talladega win, with many suggesting that he got lucky with the red flag. So, for obvious reasons, he was gutted to miss out on the win to Austin Cindric at Daytona.
A win at the iconic race could have potentially put a lot of the criticism to bed. Unfortunately, a first Daytona 500 win was not meant to be, so Wallace will have to try again. As mentioned before, the season is long, and there are more than 30 races for him to make his mark.
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How many races do you think Wallace will win this year?
READ MORE: Bubba Wallace Reveals His “Driving Crazy” Experience Outside of NASCAR on Jimmy Kimmel Live