Bubba Wallace, Freddie Kraft jokingly voice displeasure with Dale Earnhardt Jr. after Daytona

Bubba Wallace won last Thursday’s Duel 1 at Daytona, but the story that captured everyone’s attention was Justin Allgaier and JR Motorsports clinching a spot in the Daytona 500.

In partnership with Chris Stapleton‘s Traveller Whiskey, Dale Earnhardt Jr. fielded a NASCAR Cup Series car for the first time. But Allgaier, piloting the No. 40 Chevrolet, had to make the field as one of nine open cars. Five spots were up for grabs with Helio Castroneves taking the open exemption provisional, and Allgaier’s ninth-place finish in Duel 1 was enough to get him through.

Freddie Kraft, Wallace’s spotter, joked during Monday’s “Door Bumper Clear” podcast that Earnhardt and his reaction to Allgaier making the Daytona 500 stole their thunder after their Duel victory.

“I was kind of pissed at Dale because we went and won that Duel and only thing I saw after the Duel was f***ing Dale. Congrats, Dale,” Kraft said with a laugh.

Wallace agreed.

“Bubba Wallace wins Duel 1 — [and here’s] Dale Jr. Solid,” Wallace said.

Justin Allgaier, Bubba Wallace competitive in Daytona 500

Earnhardt and JR Motorsports would steal some more headlines three days later after Allgaier finished ninth in the Great American Race.

“It really was good for me, I think, to come here and experience this, to see if it was truly something that I felt like I wanted,” Earnhardt said after the race. “Because sometimes you wonder because of growing up in the sport and your last name, are you making yourself do this because you think it’s what you’re supposed to do? Do you really want to do it? This helped me understand that I do want to be here personally, and I do feel like it’s what I should be striving for.

“And we love being in the Xfinity Series and we’ve got a great business model, and we think we do a great job there. But it would be a big challenge but something I think that Kelley and I could put a lot of effort in for the next several years. So, we’ll see. We’ll see. We’ve been sitting at this position for a long time, and I know people get tired of hearing it from me. But I was so thankful for this opportunity. If this was it, this was it.”

Wallace, who led 18 laps, officially finished P29.