Darrell 'Bubba' Wallace Jr. tearful after runner-up Daytona 500 finish

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Darrell Wallace Jr. couldn't keep his emotions in check, from his finishing second in the Daytona 500 to a postrace accident with Denny Hamlin.

Wallace, known as "Bubba," hugged his mom and sister in the Daytona International Speedway media center afterward and started crying before speaking Sunday night. His family didn't get to see him right after the race because he went to the infield care center after the crash with Hamlin.The driver didn't feel like a winner, but he felt like he did something he never knew he would get an opportunity to do: competing in the NASCAR Cup Series.

"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," Wallace said. "But I just want to make them proud. Second is horrible, but it's still a good day."

Wallace, the first full-time African-American driver since Wendell Scott's last complete season in 1971, received a call from Hank Aaron before the race and received a tweet -- and a follow -- from four-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton, who also is black.

"[I was] fan-girling out," Wallace said. "I look up to him. ... He's just a genuine badass in what he does, so that was cool [that he followed me], and then he sent out a tweet, and I got weak at the knees."Wallace didn't have the same gratifying feeling about his friend, Hamlin, after the race. Hamlin and Wallace were side-by-side battling for second, and Hamlin ran into Wallace after the race.

"He might need to take some Adderall for that one," Wallace said on TV afterward, referring to Hamlin's comments last week on a Barstool Sports podcast that 70 percent of drivers take medication to help focus -- a statement Hamlin later said was a joke.

Source: espn