DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When Bubba Wallace finished second to Austin Dillon by .260 seconds in the 2018 Daytona 500, he broke down in tears.
They were tears of joy.
Contrast that to Sunday’s 64th Daytona 500 when he finished second to Austin Cindric by just .036 seconds, there were no tears coming from Wallace.
In fact, he looked borderline mad.
“What could have been, right?” Wallace said. “Man, I need to talk about some happy stuff here. I’m just dejected, but the thing that keeps me up is just the hard work that we put into our speedway stuff and the hard work from everybody at 23XI, proud of them, can’t thank them enough. I knew this was a big move last year for me to go out and be competitive, and we’re showing that.
“It’s always the first race of the season and you’re getting through everything, but when you come out of the gates like that, it’s empowering, it’s encouraging.
“Great Speedweeks, though. We’ll come home second. I’m going to be pissed off about this one for a while. I was happy on the first second place we got a couple years ago. This one sucks when you’re that close, but all-in-all, happy for our team, happy for our partners, and on to California.”
As Sunday’s Daytona 500 entered its final stages, it was obvious that Wallace had a legitimate chance to not only get his first Daytona 500 victory, but also his second-straight win on a superspeedway.
Wallace’s only Cup Series win came at Talladega Superspeedway last year in a rain-shortened contest.
But when Wallace’s Toyota was able to skate through a crash that was triggered by Tyler Reddick on lap 150, he lost the right front fender on his Toyota. It did not hinder the performance of Wallace’s car as he was in great position to win the race during the final two laps.
“The tow got knocked out and I was worried about that, but I was also worried about a flat tire,” Wallace said. “Bootie (Barker, crew chief) came over and just wanted me to confirm that everything was okay and that it wasn’t going to rub with the tow knocked out.
“I was like, ‘OK, here we go, we have to go get it.’
“I had a lot of confidence those last 10 laps. I thought we had it in the bag when we were like sixth-to-fifth. I thought it was our night, but maybe I jumped the gun too much.”
When the race restarted for the two-lap overtime shootout, Cindric restarted as the leader with Blaney restarting to his inside. Cindric got a great jump and pulled down in front of Blaney, with Wallace next in line on the bottom.
On the final lap as cars began to block, Wallace was able to make his move to get to the inside of Cindric’s Ford. As the field charged to the checkered flag, Cindric was able to maintain the lead in a side-by-side battle, with the front of Cindric’s Ford maybe three or four feet ahead the nose of Wallace’s Toyota.
“First of all, that’s pretty damn cool to win the 500 in (Austin’s) the first attempt (actually second) so congrats to Austin (Cindric),” Wallace said. “I’m just proud of everyone at 23XI Racing to just continue to work hard, continue to impress and show up ready to battle.
“Our speedway stuff has been so strong for years. It’s fun to be a part of. We will go on to California. It was just a good week here. McDonald’s on the car, I thought we were going to get them back-to-back speedway wins.
“That would have been sick.
“It’s nights like this that you appreciate. We will go on and punch a pillow or something – hug my dog when I get back to the bus, but we will be ready for California.”