Mike Wallace recently announced his return to the NASCAR Cup Series racing scene with MBM Motorsports as stock car racing prepares to kick off its 2025 racing season with the 67th Daytona 500 in February. Wallace, 65, will be taking on the challenge of the season-opening crown jewel race as was announced by Wallace himself earlier this week.
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However, the former Xfinity Series winner’s decision to run the event after his last appearance in a Cup race during the 2015 Daytona 500 could be under question as he revealed. The prospective #66 Ford Mustang Dark Horse driver said during an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, elaborating:
“I’ll lay it all out for everybody. I called Steve Phelps when this opportunity happened, that’s the president of NASCAR. Called Elton Sawyer, he said I’ll hook you up with a membership. Carl Long (MBM Motorsports’ owner) says, ‘Hey man, we need to get this all approved through Chad Little (NASCAR’s managing director for technical inspection), he’s the final guy.”
“We’re taking that as ‘We have no problems.’ I guess there’s plenty of time that somebody could change their mind but once we were given that email from Chad, we took it and made the announcement,” Wallace added further.
Good stuff with Mike Wallace today on @SiriusXMNASCAR.
I asked the 65-year-old about the approval process to get back into #NASCAR after more than four years away.
It started with a text to Steve Phelps pic.twitter.com/GMx5u2s4bT
— Alan Cavanna (@AlanCavanna) January 3, 2025
Anticipating a possible change of mind from the several parties involved between the announcement and the actual event that goes live on February 16 this year, Kenny Wallace‘s brother seemed to not be 100% confident in his approvals before the race, despite all major entities and names passing his request to race.
Why does Wallace want to race after all these years?
Battling the demise of his wife who suffered from cancer in January 2024, Wallace’s motive behind picking up his racing boots and gloves once again was to uplift his spirits after a self-proclaimed difficult year, along with the temperament and morale within Wallace’s family.
“The big reason is in January 2024 I lost my wife Carla from being married 44 years. She had a bout with cancer, we thought she had beat it, unfortunately, she didn’t and life wasn’t all that great, wasn’t that fun in 2024.”
“Myself and my kids, we all needed a boost. We need something that would say, ‘Here’s a positive story for us, let’s go make it happen’ and this opportunity presented itself.” said Wallace on his brother Kenny Wallace’s podcast.
It remains to be seen if the entry goes through eventually as the 67th Daytona 500 weekend approaches next month. Until then, fans can expect racing action at Bowman Gray Stadium as the Clash goes live on February 2, 2024, at 8:00 pm ET.
