Veteran NASCAR driver Mike Wallace denied approval to run Daytona 500

With over 800 starts at the national level, and 197 in Cup, Mike Wallace was looking forward to making an unexpected return to the sport in next month’s Daytona 500. But the veteran driver, even with 11 Daytona 500 starts and 16 attempts, was denied a 17th, as confirmed by a NASCAR spokesperson to Motorsport.com.

NASCAR cited “recent racing activity and performance” as the driving factors behind this decision, noting that he has not competed at larger oval tracks (intermediate and up) in a decade. “Due to this inactivity, at this time, he is not approved to race at the NASCAR Cup Series level.” The series added that he has not requested approval for competing in the Truck or Xfinity Series.

“This comes as a total shock”

The 65-year-old was supposed to pilot the No. 66 MBM Motorsports Ford, and claims NASCAR’s decision came as a bit of a shock, believing himself eligible to run the race. He reacted to the news with the following Facebook post: “Daytona 500 NON update! To my utter shock and devastation at 4:00 today NASCAR competition director Elton Sawyer called to inform me that NASCAR has decided not only to not approve me for Daytona 500, but at this time not approve [me] to race in the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck series in 2025, but could go through [their] process to possibly get approved for 2026. This comes as a total shock as the President of NASCAR last week in a real phone call told me all was good and he will see me in Daytona. I owe this posting to all my fans and non fans who were so supportive through the great messages and postings of support as they say I inspired them!”

Without Wallace at the helm, what happens to the No. 66 car? The eldest Wallace brother went on to urge people to support MBM Motorsports and team owner Carl Long, now scrambling to find a driver just one month before NASCAR’s biggest race. The team released their own statement saying that “MBM Motorsports can confirm that NASCAR has deemed Mike Wallace is not eligible to compete in the 2025 Daytona 500, despite eleven previous 500 starts and several superspeedway wins, due to lack of recent races in major professional motorsports.

“We are devastated for Mike and the Wallace family that this opportunity will not come to fruition. For MBM, we must regroup at this late stage with the loss of our driver and sponsor for The Great American Race. Our team is working swiftly to sign another funded driver for Speedweeks in order to still attempt the 67th Daytona 500. Sponsorship opportunities remain with our No. 66 team: contact us at [email protected] for more.”

MBM Motorsports ran a partial schedule in 2024, starting 13 races with six different drivers. Even if they find a driver in time, they face an uphill climb with only four open slots on the grid plus the recently added Open Exemption Provisional, which is only available to Helio Castroneves and the No. 91 Trackhouse Racing Team. Up to nine open teams could be heading to the 500, including the likely appearance of former Cup champions Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr.