Wallace feeling confidence rising at Daytona

Bubba Wallace showed up to Wednesday’s media day ahead of the Daytona 500 and admitted he feels something good is coming his way.

“I feel really good about it,” the 23XI Racing driver said. “I’ve been getting a lot of signs that it’s going to be a good weekend. Don’t ask me what said signs were. They were good ones. So, I feel good about our chances.”

Sunday will be the ninth time Wallace has participated in the Daytona 500, a race that has given him mixed results but has also been one in which he’s been in contention for a win. Wallace has two runner-up efforts in the Daytona 500, including in his first attempt in 2018. The other came in 2021.

In his eight starts, Wallace has three top-three finishes. He’s led 39 laps in the event.

“We’ve obviously grown and matured as a team, even just from last year and when we started 23XI and started the (No.) 23 team,” Wallace continued. “We’ve got a lot of the right people in the right spots, and to come into this year more confident, more determined, and focused, I feel good about that. We just have to dot all of our I’s and cross all of our T’s; I feel like we say that every year here in the 500 media day, but you have to put it all together.”

The aforementioned pair of second-place finishes are races Wallace would love to have back or at least a chance at changing the ending. Wallace joked that NASCAR should have penalized Austin Cindric in 2022 for running Ryan Blaney, who got a run off the nose of Wallace, into the wall off Turn 4 on the final lap, before moving back down the track, nearly across Wallace’s nose, and pushing him below the yellow line.

“He didn’t really, but...” Wallace said with a smirk. “I think the first one (in 2018), I didn’t know what the hell I was doing and we finished second. But then that one, the (No.) 2 and the (No.) 12 up there, it was going to be hard to beat (them). But yeah, everything happens for a reason. All good.”

Coincidentally, Wallace’s most recent Cup Series win was in a crown jewel event, having triumphed at Indianapolis last summer. Daytona would be a second, and put Wallace halfway to potentially winning them all in his career.

“That’d be sick,” he said. “That’d be awesome.”

So, where have these signs come from, and has Wallace ever felt them before this week?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t think so.” And then with a smile, “We’ll find out.”