BCE

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Bubba Wallace got a big hug from team owner Michael Jordan in the pits at Daytona last week after the racer clinched his first career NASCAR playoff appearance.

Now, Wallace is primed to show he and his 23XI Racing team have even more in the tank this season.

Wallace, winless this season, finished 12th at Daytona a week ago to become the final driver in the 16-team field that will compete for a NASCAR Cup Series crown starting Sunday night at Darlington Raceway.

It was a career achievement for Wallace. He sees even more ahead.

He loves the opening round of three races — Darlington, Kansas and Bristol — and believes his Toyota can advance into the round of 12 and beyond.

“There's no reason why we can't be better in the top eight, top four,” Wallace said Thursday in previewing the playoffs. “So I definitely feel good about that.”

Wallace seeks to be known as a championship driver along with a groundbreaker. His win at Talladega Superspeedway in 2021 made him the first Black driver to win a race in NASCAR's top series since Hall of Famer Wendell Scott won in Jacksonville, Florida, nearly six decades earlier in 1963.

It came at the same track where a year earlier Wallace and his team found a noose in his garage stall. An FBI investigation found the item was a garage pull and there a year before Wallace's team discovered it there.

Wallace, who at the time received death threats, said the incident would not “tear me down.”

Wallace has used his platform to bring attention to social justice issues in 2020, wearing an “I Can't Breathe” T-shirt at Atlanta and running a “#BlackLivesMatter” paint scheme at Martinsville with the message, “Love, Compassion, Understanding.”

Wallace is glad to get