If you look at the finishing order from the season opener at Daytona, race-winning rookie Austin Cindric isn’t the only name in the top five that jumps off the page. Second-place finisher Bubba Wallace and third-place finisher Chase Briscoe likewise were not part of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs a season ago, so their strong outings were certainly notable. And both drivers would obviously like nothing better than to use their Daytona 500 performance as a building block for a much better 2022 season than the season they experienced in 2021.
Although Wallace earned a career-first Cup win at Talladega late in the year, the 23XI Racing driver finished a disappointing 21st in the standings due to his overall inconsistency. Briscoe, who spent 2021 as a Cup rookie for Stewart-Haas Racing, finished 23rd in points and posted nary a top-five. But both drivers are off to a great start in 2022 and hope to build on their Daytona success beginning this weekend at Auto Club Speedway in Southern California.
“It’s great to have a chance to win the Daytona 500 at the end and finish third and start the year off with these Mahindra Tractors folks and HighPoint.com, all the people that get us to the racetrack,” Briscoe said, referring to two of his primary sponsors. “We want to be a playoff contender this year, and having a good run at Daytona is a good start. Wish we could have had one more lap. You never know what could have happened, but yeah, it was super-cool to finish third.”