Mike Wallace, brother of Rusty and Kenny Wallace, enters 2025 Daytona 500 with MBM Motorsports

How about this for the Daytona 500? Mike Wallace is getting back in a NASCAR Cup Series car with MBM Motorsports for 2025. The 65-year-old made his last Cup start in 2015 at Daytona. That MBM car looked pretty fast the last time it was down there.

While Mike Wallace is the more understated of the three brothers, he is a racer through and through. He announced the news earlier today via his brother Kenny Wallace’s social media pages.

Wallace will pilot the No. 66 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for MBM Motorsports. It will be a tough field to qualify for, but it won’t be impossible.

🚨Breaking News🚨

My brother @MikeWallaceRace is gonna run the Daytona 500 in February! #nascar pic.twitter.com/nx24yS8Alx

— Kenny Wallace (@Kenny_Wallace) January 2, 2025

At 65 years old, Mike Wallace is taking on one of the toughest races in motorsports. The Daytona 500 is not easy for anyone, let alone someone his age. MBM Motorsports has a real chance to qualify for this race and put Wallace in the biggest show in NASCAR.

In the video with his brother, Mike refers to losing his wife, Carla, to cancer in January of 2024. A year later, in her honor, he is hoping to qualify for the Daytona 500 in a NASCAR Next Gen Cup car.

Mike Wallace made his first start with Jimmy Means Racing in 1991 and raced throughout the 2000s and 2010s with various teams. If he is able to qualify for the Daytona 500 this year, he will have raced in four different decades.

Mike Wallace has a history of winning at Daytona

The last time Mike Wallace won a NASCAR national series race was in 2011. He was 52 years old and racing for Kevin Harvick Inc. in a one-off. He came away with the win at Talladega in the fall.

When it comes to Daytona, Wallace knows about winning there as well. He has won in the Xfinity Series, Truck Series, and ARCA Menards Series at the legendary track. In a race where anything can happen, the No. 66 has a fighting chance.

Then again, it has been years since Wallace made a start in NASCAR. His last attempt was in 2020 in the Xfinity Series with JD Motorsports. Wallace qualified 14th at the Indy Road Course, finishing 24th.

In his last Daytona 500 attempt, Mike Wallace qualified P16 with Premium Motorsports. While his race didn’t go great, 36th on the day, he made it just fine.

That 2020 start with JDM makes me think Wallace has it in him to make this race. But we won’t know until we see the car and driver on the track.