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On second thought, NASCAR feared Rusty’s brother might be … yep … too rusty.
Ten days after 65-year-old Mike Wallace announced he would attempt the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s competition department has intervened and essentially taken away grandpa’s keys.
Wallace, the middle sibling of three racing brothers (Kenny is younger, Hall of Famer Rusty is older), last started a Cup Series race a decade ago — it happened to be the 2015 Daytona 500. He ran three Xfinity Series races in 2020, but all were on road courses.
Here’s the official Tuesday morning statement from NASCAR: “For each résumé approval request, recent racing activity and performance is a primary factor for consideration. Wallace has not raced on an intermediate or larger racetrack since 2015. Due to this inactivity, at this time, he is not approved to race at the NASCAR Cup Series level.”
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In a social media post, Wallace suggested he’d earlier been told by NASCAR he would be welcome to try to earn a spot in the Feb. 16 Great American Race. But he said he received notice Monday, from NASCAR competition director Elton Sawyer, that he wouldn’t be granted permission to race in any of the circuit’s top three series (Cup, Xfinity, Trucks) this year but could go through a process of earning a license for 2026.
Mike Wallace has a good Daytona record
Wallace had three top-10s in 11 Daytona 500 starts between 1995-2015, with a fourth-place finish in ’07. He won three times at Daytona, once each in the Xfinity, Trucks and ARCA series.
For this year’s longshot effort, Wallace also said he was bringing a sponsorship commitment to the effort, though that hadn’t been announced yet. MBM’s confirmation of Wallace’s sponsor tag-along indicates it was the impetus behind the would-be effort.
“For MBM, we must regroup at this late stage with the loss of our driver and sponsor for the Great American Race,” the team said in its announcement. “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 info was then added.
NASCAR and Carl Long have a touchy 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 smack-down from NASCAR.
In 2009, Long was a fledgling racer with a wafer-thin budget. Over the course of a decade, he’d qualified for 23 Cup Series races with four different manufacturers, with a best-ever finish of 29th.
He arrived at the 2009 All-Star weekend to run the preliminary race, using an engine he’d purchased from a recently shuttered race team. Among the biggest no-no’s in auto racing is the use of an engine that sits beyond the allowed size. Long’s engine was a fraction over the 358 cubic-inch limit.
The 12-race suspension was one thing, but the accompanying fine of $200,000, NASCAR’s largest ever financial penalty at the time, basically shut down Long’s NASCAR’s efforts. Unable to pay the fine, Long was barred from the Cup Series garage for eight years.
He spent much of the ensuing years working for Truck and Xfinity teams in various crewman roles, including mechanic, until his Cup ban was lifted in 2017. If he hoped to remain below the radar upon returning, he failed.
It’s not the first NASCAR plans snuffed out on Carl Long
Shortly after Long’s reinstatement to the Cup garage, he arrived at Kansas Speedway with a Chevy sporting the logo and name of a pot-vaping company from Colorado (“Veedverks”). The buzz-kill came during tech inspection when NASCAR said no to the sponsorship.
“Just leave it to me to create a big stink,” Long said at the time.
Veedverks was replaced by Poker Palace.
His MBM team has entered 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.
For the start of 2025, Long will need to hurry to find a driver and funding to make a run at the highest-profile race in NASCAR.
“This has now put them in a terrible position,” Wallace wrote in his social media post. “I was not just the driver but also committed sponsorship for their Daytona 500 effort.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR parks Daytona 500 ride. Mike Wallace out due to inactivity
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