If Bubba Wallace wants to replicate or better his runner-up finish from the Daytona 500, much of it lies out of his control.
Like every one of the four restrictor-plate races on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule, anything can happen — and likely will — in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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The rookie Richard Petty Motorsports driver is well aware that disaster can strike in an instant during the 160-lap patroitic summer classic at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, while he’s also experienced the reward for avoiding all the mayhem in the 500-miler back in February.
“The biggest thing is surviving,” Wallace told NASCAR.com. “We had two or three wrecks that I should have been a part of, but somehow we came out on the other side — on the clean side of it. …It’s all about if you can survive the madness or not.”
As far as expectations this time around, Wallace is cautiously optimistic that he can make another run to the front at Daytona happen, keeping in mind a 16th-place finish at Talladega in May doesn’t exactly make him a restrictor-plate track guru.
In Bubba’s eyes, second place was happenstance mixed with putting the No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro in the right place at the right time.
“A top five would be awesome,” said Wallace. “I don’t want people to start thinking I’m a speedway racer now. We just happened to miss all the wrecks and set ourselves up for a good finish.”
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Wallace, sounding calm and cool, says superspeedway racing makes the No. 43 crew anything but relaxed because at Daytona, anything can occur.
“This is one of the most stressful weekends for everyone at the shop because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Wallace said. “The speedway races are insane. They’re wild. We’re going 200 miles-per-hour the entire time, so you’ve got to be mindful of what’s going on.”
As for Wallace’s stress level going into the race weekend, he says it’s not as high, taking a veteran-like approach.
“The only thing that I can control is everything that has to do with my race car and that’s it,” Wallace added. “Then anything outside of that is not up to me. I don’t stress about what I can’t control.”
Keeping realistic goals in mind, Wallace hopes Round Two at Daytona will play out similar — or even better — than the first.
“If we can manage to get through the last five laps of the race and go have some fun, like we did at Daytona, I think that would be a great weekend for us.”
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