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Bubba Wallace succeeded in his intention: To secure the playoffs. This was a very tense week for him, and probably the most stressful of his career. Wallace felt a great sense of relief after it was all over. “I don’t have a lot of things on my Mount Rushmore,” Wallace said after the race, as quoted by racer.com!
“I got two faces with my two wins; I’ll put this as the third face up there. It’s pretty special. Just relieved. I don’t have much emotion, just relieved, drained mentally. Glad we’ve got the day off tomorrow because I’ll be hurting on Monday”.
Denny Hamlin reacted
23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin could not hide his happiness considering that two of his drivers will be in the playoffs. With the team being so young, this is a huge accomplishment for them. Hamlin seems to be especially proud of Bubba Wallace, who showed composure in one of the most important races of the season.
“I’m really proud of the whole 23XI team to get two cars in the playoffs in just our third year,” co-owner Denny Hamlin said. “It’s a testament to all of the hard work they’ve been putting in.
You can’t do it without your manufacturer in Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing for the alliance and the team itself for putting fast cars on the race track and on top of that, the drivers working to get better. We’ve seen a really big shift for Bubba getting better.
He’s stepping up, and I look forward to seeing what he does”.
Wallace also wanted to apologize to his wife, as well as to all those he did not listen to. He was aware that this race carries a lot with it, and that it would really be catastrophic if he lost that playoff.
However, what he wanted came true. “I’m just relieved. I apologized to my wife (Amanda) all week. I haven’t been myself – I’ve been stressing. Thankful that we are in it. That is the most calm I’ve ever been.
It’s (butt) backward. You come to Daytona and you focus so much on controlling the things that you can control. My stubborn (butt) never wants to listen to people telling me that. I finally did that, and we are locked in."