DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace vowed to try to “enjoy the little stuff” this season.
It showed Thursday night in victory lane at Daytona International Speedway.
“Can I get a Rolex for this one?” Wallace quipped, referring to the coveted watch that winners receive after the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the annual sports car endurance race that was held last month.
Wallace, driving the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing, won the first of Thursday’s two Duel at Daytona qualifying races for Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500. He showed enough speed to make him one of the favorites heading into the 67th edition of “The Great American Race.”
“Man, what a night,” Wallace said. “I’ve wanted one of these Duel wins for so long.”
Wallace will start third, behind pole-sitter Chase Briscoe in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and Austin Cindric in a Team Penske Ford, with the front row settled Wednesday night during time trials.
Not that he needed it, but Cindric also won the second qualifying race after NASCAR ruled he was ahead of the Toyota driven by Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones when the caution came out on the final lap. Jones thought he had earned the first Daytona qualifier victory in the No. 43 since NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty in 1977 and was on the front stretch when race officials declared Cindric the winner.
“What just happened?” Cindric asked when he learned he was the winner.
He had to walk from pit lane across the infield grass to collect the checkered flag, only to discover there wasn’t one. He instead climbed toward the fans and tossed his hat to a fan.
“It’s a wide range of emotions, it’s a bummer,” Jones said. “I don’t know what we could have done different. It’s the rule. Hopefully, we can be in that same spot Sunday.
Meanwhile, the 31-year-old Wallace celebrated his first victory of any type at Daytona by spraying a Coke at his crew, hugging JGR driver Denny Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing, and then lifting his newborn son high into the air, a lá “The Lion King.” The baby was wearing noise-protective headphones and a checkered-flag bib while sucking on a pacifier.
Wallace and wife Amanda welcomed Becks Hayden Wallace in late September. Wallace said he “lost it walking out on pit road” while carrying the 4-month-old. He found himself shedding more tears while frolicking in victory lane with his family.
“It is the coolest thing having a kid,” Wallace said. “You never know if you’re ready. I regret not having one earlier. He’s brought so much joy and new perspective. I feel like I’m walking lighter because of him. Four months old, and he’s already changed my life.”
Wallace has talked openly about past battles with his mental health, and coming to this 2.5-mile superspeedway has provided more stress than success over the years, with Wallace still 0-for-15 in points races at the track, although he has twice finished second in the Daytona 500.
“Tired of talking about it,” he joked.
“I felt like every time I’ve strapped into a race car at the Daytona 500, I’ve been able to win and just things haven’t worked out like that,” added Wallace, who has finished in the top 15 in a dozen of his 15 starts in points races at Daytona. “I don’t think there’s one time that I haven’t felt that. You have to show up and have that drive and passion that you’re going to win. But you also have to put yourself in the right spot.”
It nearly happened in 2018 and 2022, but Wallace came up just short in both editions of the Daytona 500.
“I think you’ve got to crawl before you can walk,” he said. “Second-place finishes, I guess wasn’t crawling enough. So maybe the Duel win is. Now we can put ourselves in a little bit better spot.
“I feel like we’ve done just about everything right. But just about everything isn’t good enough to win the 500. It’s got to be perfect, and we’ve just got to really focus on how to do that and when that time comes be in the same spot here Sunday.”
Wallace said a day earlier he “couldn’t care less” if President Donald Trump attends the Daytona 500. Trump accused the NASCAR Cup Series’ only Black full-time driver of perpetrating ” a hoax ” five years ago when a crew member found a noose in the team garage stall at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway.
Trump suggested in July 2020 that Wallace should apologize after the sport rallied around him after the discovery of the noose in his assigned stall. Federal authorities ruled the noose had been hanging since October and was not a hate crime. NASCAR and the FBI have referred exclusively to the rope — which was used to pull the garage door closed — as a noose.
Wallace declined to say much about the possibility that Trump could return to NASCAR’s biggest race as a sitting president for the second time.
“We’re here to race,” Wallace said. “Not for the show.”
Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves accepted a provisional spot available under a new rule that allows for a “world-class driver” to enter regardless of his performance in time trials or the qualifying races.
The 49-year-old Brazilian did not want to use the provisional and hoped to race his way into the field, but he was involved in an early eight-car collision that sent his Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet behind the wall for repairs and took him out of contention for one of the open spots available in the first Duel.
“Unfortunately, we’re going to have to take the provisional,” Castroneves said. “That’s not what we wanted, but we will. And, in the end, we have more to learn.”
Castroneves using the provisional pushed the field to 41 cars, the largest for the Daytona 500 since 43 was the standard in 2015.
“I was having a good time,” Castroneves said. “The good news is hopefully the guys will be able to fix the car. I learned so much, such small details that folks from the other side of TV don’t understand. It’s so interesting. And I love it.”
While charters guarantee most of the field spots in points races on a weekly basis in the Cup Series, for the Daytona 500, one driver from each of the qualifiers advances to Sunday.
It was Justin Allgaier, last year’s season champion on the second-tier Xfinity Series, who outdueled J.J. Yeley to earn the open spot available in the first race. Allgaier was ninth, while Yeley was 17th and Chandler Smith — the other driver in the first race hoping for a spot — was 20th out of 23 cars after crashing.
Allgaier making the race will mark the Cup Series debut for JR Motorsports, which is owned by two-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley. The car is sponsored by a whiskey label founded by Grammy winner Chris Stapleton.
“This means a lot to our team, this little team of JR Motorsports. Dale Jr. is an amazing race car driver. He’s an amazing dad, car owner. You can tell how much he wanted this and our whole shop wanted this,” Allgaier said. “To see this happen, everybody at Traveler Whiskey, Chris Stapleton will be here on Sunday. I’m excited to see him here and debut this car in the Daytona 500 and JR Motorsports in the Daytona 500.”
Corey LaJoie, in a part-time ride for Rick Ware Racing, earned the final open spot in the field with his sixth-place finish in the second race — well ahead of B.J. McLeod, the other hopeful, who was 17th.
“You forget how special this race is. When you are racing full time, it’s the first race of 36,” said LaJoie, who spent the past eight seasons competing in the Cup Series but is only running a partial schedule this year. “We’ve got 500 miles on Sunday to see if we can get a little closer to the front.”
Even before Castroneves needed it, the provisional was controversial in that seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and 2017 champ Martin Truex Jr. didn’t understand why they weren’t considered as the designated “world-class driver.”
It’s because the rule was written into the new charter agreements that teams signed in September and neither was aware it existed until after it was formally announced. By then, the 90 days’ advance notice to request the provisional had passed.
It didn’t matter after Johnson and Truex each earned their spots in the Daytona 500 field in Wednesday night’s time trials, although their starting positions were set by Thursday’s qualifying races, just like everyone else in the Daytona 500 lineup — except the front row of Briscoe and Cindric.