*After Bubba Wallace and the 23XI Racing team finished in fifth place at Pocono on Sunday, team co-owner Michael Jordan has set new expectations for the stock car racing driver.
According to a report by Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal, Wallace shared that both Jordan and 23XI investor Curtis Polk were “ecstatic and pumped up” after the team’s performance at Pocono.
“Now he expects a Top 10 every week,” Wallace said of Jordan. “So now we have to put our foot down and keep digging.”
“Everyone talks about how he’s a winner, he’s a champion, yeah, but he’s also a realistic person,” Wallace said about MJ in a report by Dustin Albino of Jayski.com. “He wants to win, but he knows what it will take for us to get there. It’s more from me, it’s from the team, it’s a more group effort.”
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Today was the day @BubbaWallace needed at @PoconoRaceway.
He spoke with @NASCARonNBC following a fifth-place finish, his best of the season. pic.twitter.com/PgTt684x7f
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 27, 2021
Sunday marked the first time 23XI Racing has cracked the Top 10 in the finishing order.
“All in all, really solid weekend. Great day for DraftKings, their first race on the car. First top five for the team. I think that’s a little pen to the paper action there to re-sign, re-up there,” Wallace said following his race. “We wanted playoffs when we started the season so we’ve got a lot of work to do. We know we’re in a hole. But it’s finishes like this that we need to capitalize on.”
Meanwhile, as reported b yMSN, the NASCAR world is skeptical that 23XI Racing will have a top 10 finish every week for the rest of the season.
“MJ is expecting way too much out of a new team,” one fan said.
“IMO they need to focus on beating Trackhouse. That’s a more apples to apples comparison on a new team,” another fan wrote.
“Really wish MJ would stop getting his hopes up so high. The team is only a few months old competing with a bunch of teams that have been around and been successful for decades. Hoping for good runs is fine, but expecting regular Top 10s at this point is a little much,” a third added.
“Wish them much luck but I don’t see them being a consistent Top 10 team anytime soon. Maybe a consistent Top 15 would be more realistic,” another fan commented.
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