DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Stepping up to the plate in his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, Darrell Wallace Jr. earned a career-best second place finish for Richard Petty Motorsports in Sunday’s Daytona 500.
In his first “Great American Race” Wallace’s aggressive approach kept his No. 43 Click n’ Close Chevrolet near the front and in the hunt throughout the 207-lap race.
Following a caution with two laps remaining in the scheduled distance, Wallace found himself connected with Chevrolet teammate Austin Dillon and with a drafting push it accelerated Dillon to Victory Lane, with Wallace edging out Denny Hamlin at the start / finish line to earn Richard Petty Motorsports’ best Cup finish since Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in October 2016 with driver Brian Scott.
“All-in-all a great day for our Click N’ Close Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team,” offered Wallace. “Just an incredible experience for me to be able to be here for my first Daytona 500. (Watching the replay) He (Denny Hamlin) says I cut his tire down.
“It looked like the same move he pulled on (Ryan) Blaney at Martinsville. We had some momentum and we beat him, so it’s all good. The Daytona 500 put that aside. My nerves are shot right now.
“The King (Richard Petty) comes in all mad at me and says after all I told you what was the first rule I told you to do. I’m like ‘I don’t know I lost my breath’ and he said, ‘don’t wreck the car’ and we … oh. Thank you to the King (Richard Petty) for keeping me young, keeping him young as well. Thank you to the King as well for giving me this opportunity putting them second-place, putting Click N’ Close in second place.
“We know how much stress this team has been through in the last three or four months just trying to get this program together. For me to come out here with this hectic three months I’ve had with the Facebook Series ‘Behind the Wall – with Bubba Wallace’ check it out. Hell, of an ending for us tonight, but P2 for my first Daytona 500, I’ll take it.”
Wallace’s effort was a best-finish by an African American driver in the Daytona 500.
The emotions of Speedweeks finally caught up with the NASCAR Next alumnus post-race after meeting with co-team owner Richard Petty and an unexpected moment with his mother, Desiree in the media center where he sobbed in a damped towel afterwards.
“I’m just so emotional over where my family has been the last two years, and I don’t talk about it, but it’s just so hard, and so having them here to support me is – pull it together, bud, pull it together. You just finished second. It’s awesome,” said Wallace.
“I just try so hard to be successful at everything I do, and my family pushes me each and every day, and they might not even know it, but I just want to make them proud. Second is horrible, but it’s still a good day.
“But yeah, I just love my family, and having everybody here from my mom, my sister, my uncle, everybody here just means a lot.”
Wallace also explained the last few inches of his first Daytona 500 where Denny Hamlin made contact with his No. 43 Chevrolet and put both cars into the outside wall taking the checkered flag.
“I mean, it looked kind of like the same move he pulled on Ryan at Martinsville if I remember correctly last year with that mayhem,” added Wallace. “But you know, if I did if that happened, okay, so be it, but it just seems like he got off of me a little bit and then turned back into me.
“I know the cars drive crazy and whatnot and they’re a handful, but it just didn’t seem like that right away, but it was tough to see from that angle anyways. Who knows. We’re both pissed off at each other. But we’re racers. We’re competitive, and we’ll go into Atlanta and be fine. I might be kicked out of the basketball league, but whatever. And golf league, too.”
Crashed or not, Wallace earned his moment in the spotlight on Sunday and it’s a day he won’t soon forget.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
