MBM Motorsports haven't competed in the Daytona 500 since 2020, but they announced that they would be aiming to change that in 2025. After attempting but failing to qualify for the "Great American Race" in 2021 and 2022, the team did not return in 2023 and 2024.
But in 2025, they confirmed that Mike Wallace would be behind the wheel of the No. 66 Ford in the single-car qualifying session and in one of the two Bluegreen Vacations Duel races in an attempt to qualify for the event.
NASCAR, however, opted not to let that happen. Wallace, who is now 65 years old, has not competed in a Cup Series race since the 2015 Daytona 500, and because of his lack of experience in recent high-level motorsport events, they barred him from competing, even though he has made 11 Daytona 500 starts before.
By comparison, Derrike Cope, then 62 years old, was allowed to compete in the 2021 Daytona 500, despite having not competed in a Daytona 500 since 2004 at the time. He competed for Rick Ware Racing.
The move left MBM Motorsports in need of a new driver and funding, otherwise the No. 66 Ford would have once again not even had a chance to try to qualify for the Daytona 500.
NEWS: 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… pic.twitter.com/AsV9fscgq0
— MBM Motorsports (@MBMMotorsports) January 14, 2025
Fortunately for the Carl Long-owned team, they were able to sign Chandler Smith, and in the meantime, they have rebranded their Cup Series effort to Garage 66. Smith is set to attempt to qualify the No. 66 Ford this week, though with nine non-chartered (open) cars going for four open spots, it will be an uphill battle to say the least.
But it's not the first time that MBM Motorsports have gotten the short end of the stick.
First of all, there is the fact that Long was denied a charter on multiple occasions back in 2020, even though he claimed that he offered sellers a "blank check". In an interview with Beyond the Flag from 2021, he stated the following.
"I went to them last year [2020] with a blank check and said, 'Just tell me how much to fill it out and I’ll get you the money.' And I got turned down, all three charters that went out," he said. "So I don’t know what the situation is that I can’t buy a charter."
Back then, the going rate for charters was around $2.5 million. Now, it's between $20 and $25 million, which is actually down from the $40 million price tag they hit after the 2023 season.
Then there is the fact that this was a team whose goal was to compete full-time in 2021, and they packaged their sponsorship deals around the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, which full-time drivers were required to compete in at the time.
At that point, the team were still competing full-time, and Timmy Hill was still competing full-time for the team in the No. 66 car. Yet NASCAR left them off the entry list for literally no reason and did not allow them to compete.
And this was one of a number of reasons why the team were ultimately forced to scale back in 2021, and they have not competed full-time since.
"We try to sell our iRacing in conjunction with our normal Cup deal, and it just took that tool away," Long said at the time. "We had that tool back [from 2020], and they’re allowing Timmy to go do it, we just have not been able to secure sponsorship with that. ...
"RTA [Race Team Alliance] decided to take the 1% of the total purse that the open cars received. RTA is basically like the unions that all of the big teams are a part of, and they tell NASCAR, 'Well, this is what we want, and this is what we’re going to do.' And so NASCAR has to kind of follow them.
"The RTA is the reason why Timmy got overlooked! They were supposed to let us know that Timmy was going to be in the iRacing. Between the RTA and some of the other people, we just got overlooked."
Long went into further detail (full interview to be re-published soon), but you get the idea.
Because quite clearly, it would have been so, so challenging just to add one more full-time driver to a virtual event which was literally required for full-time drivers.
The team only ended up competing part-time throughout the rest of the 2021 season, and they made only two appearances in 2022 before missing the 2023 season entirely. They did return on a more regular basis in 2024, but that schedule did not include the Daytona 500.
Yet now in 2025, with an aim to return to the "Great American Race", they were almost denied the chance to even attempt to qualify, thanks to the latest obstacle with which they were faced. Will they achieve their goal of competing in around 20 of the 36 races on the 2025 schedule?
The single-car qualifying session for the Daytona 500 is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, February 12 (8:15 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1), and the Bluegreen Vacations Duel races are scheduled to follow suit on Thursday, February 13 (7:00 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1). The race itself is scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 16 (2:30 p.m. ET on Fox). Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!