Bubba Wallace delivers Daytona Duel race trophy to Michael Jordan

Last night, Bubba Wallace earned himself a win in the Duels at Daytona. It was a great start to the Daytona 500 week for the driver. Afterward, Wallace delivered that trophy by hand to his NASCAR team owner, Michael Jordan.

Having the GOAT as your boss can’t be easy. On top of that, MJ isn’t involved in the NBA anymore. So, 23XI Racing and NASCAR is kind of what he has going on right now.

Last season, Tyler Reddick won a Duel race. This year, Bubba Wallace had to follow that up with a win of his own. He had a lot of help from Reddick in the process.

Today, after everyone celebrated, Wallace made his way to the 23XI tent. It looks like quite the setup for Michael Jordan and the whole organization.

“Brought the Big Boss back some hardware,” Wallace captioned the video on Instagram.

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This is a big deal for Bubba Wallace. He last won a points race in 2022 at Kansas. While the Duel isn’t a full-points-paying race, it still gives out some points. Wallace is technically tied as points leader with Austin Cindric right now with 10 each.

The Duel races produced plenty of drama last night. There were wrecks and bad pit stops. In the second race there was even a controversial finish between Erik Jones and Austin Cindric. That was due to a caution flag coming out in the last 100 feet or so of the race.

On top of that, we had a lot of open cars this year. More than any year in the last 10 seasons. So, there was a lot on the line. While Bubba Wallace and William Byron raced for the win, Justin Allgaier and JJ Yeley raced for a starting spot. It was everything you wanted in the Duel races.

Bubba Wallace gets a confidence boost with Duel win

There isn’t a lot that winning a Duel race does for a driver. But someone like Bubba Wallace can use it as a great confidence boost. Not just for Sunday but for the season. He was calm, cool, and collected. Even with big pushes from Reddick he remained focused.

Coming off of two years without a race win, a Duel win probably feels like a weight off Wallace’s shoulders. Not to mention, he did it with his new crew chief Charles Denike on the pit box. That tells this 23 team that they are going to be in good hands moving forward.

After the race, Wallace appeared relieved.

“Thanks to Tyler. That was awesome to see two team cars work together that well and learn a lot for Sunday. Did a great job pushing me. Our McDonald’s Toyota Camry was really fast. Two different balances from being in the pack to being out front. Have some work to do there.

“I’ve wanted one of these Duel wins for so long. All my buddies got one. Tyler got one last year. I was pissed off. I got one now. I’m good.”