On reflection, NASCAR feared Rusty’s brother maybe… yeah… too rusty.
Ten days after Mike Wallace, 65, announced he would try the Daytona 500NASCAR’s racing department stepped in and essentially confiscated grandpa’s keys.
Wallace, the second brother of three racing brothers (Kenny is the youngest, Hall of Famer Rusty is the eldest), last started a Cup Series race a decade ago — it was the 2015 Daytona 500. He ran three Xfinity Series races in 2020, but all were on road courses.
Here is the official statement from NASCAR Tuesday morning: “For each CV approval request, recent racing activity and performance are a primary factor to consider. Wallace has not raced on an intermediate or largest since 2015. Due to this inactivity, at this time he is not allowed to race at the NASCAR Cup Series level.
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In a social media post, Wallace suggested he had previously been told by NASCAR he would be welcome to try to win a place on February 16 Great American Race. But he said he received notice Monday from NASCAR competition director Elton Sawyer that he would not be allowed to race in any of the circuit’s top three series (Cup, Xfinity, Trucks) this year. , but that it could go through a process of obtaining gains. a permit for 2026.
Mike Wallace has a good record at Daytona
Wallace finished in the top 10 three times in 11 Daytona 500 starts between 1995 and 2015, with a fourth-place finish in 2007. He won three times at Daytona, once in the Xfinity Series, Trucks Series and ARCA Series.
For this year’s long-shot effort, Wallace also said he would bring a sponsorship commitment to the effort, although that has not yet been announced. MBM’s confirmation of Wallace’s sponsor support indicates that is the impetus behind this potential effort.
“For MBM, we need to get our act together at this late stage with the loss of our driver and sponsor for the Great American Race,” the team said in its statement. “Our team is working quickly to recruit another Speedweeks funded driver to once again attempt the 67th Daytona 500. Sponsorship opportunities remain with our No. 66 team.”
Contact information was then added.
NASCAR and Carl Long have a tricky history
MBM Motorsports is owned and operated by former driver Carl Long, and if that name sounds familiar to casual fans, it’s because this isn’t his first NASCAR victory.
In 2009, Long was a young rider on a shoestring budget. Over the course of a decade, he qualified for 23 Cup Series races with four different manufacturers, finishing 29th, his best finish ever.
He arrived at the 2009 All-Star weekend to run the preliminary race, using an engine he had purchased from a recently shuttered racing team. One of the biggest no-nos in motor racing is using an engine that exceeds the permitted size. Long’s engine was slightly over the limit of 358 cubic inches.
The 12-race suspension was one thing, but the $200,000 fine that accompanied it, the largest financial penalty ever imposed on NASCAR at the time, essentially ended Long’s efforts in NASCAR. Unable to pay the fine, Long was barred from the Cup Series garage for eight years.
He spent much of the next few years working for the Truck and Xfinity teams in various crew roles, including mechanic, until his Cup ban was lifted in 2017. While he hoped to remain under the radar on its return, it failed.
This is not the first NASCAR project stifled against Carl Long
Shortly after Long’s reinstatement in the Cup garage, he arrived at Kansas Speedway with a Chevrolet emblazoned with the logo and name of a Colorado vaping pot company (“Veedverks”). The buzz-kill came during technical inspection when NASCAR said no to sponsorship.
“Let me just make a big stink,” Long said at the time.
Veedverks has been replaced by Poker Palace.
His MBM team competed in 127 races over the previous eight Cup seasons with a variety of drivers. Last season, six different drivers started 13 races for MBM, with a best finish of 28th at the Chicago Street Race.
By early 2025, Long will have to scramble to find a driver and funding to compete in NASCAR’s most prestigious race.
“This now puts them in a terrible position,” Wallace wrote in his social media post. “I was not only the driver, but I was also a committed sponsor for their Daytona 500 effort.”
This article originally appeared in the Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona 500: NASCAR parks Mike Wallace, 65, absent due to inactivity
