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Mike Wallace reacts with 'total shock' to NASCAR disqualifying him from Daytona 500, competition in 2025

Brian Jones Profile Picby:Brian Jones•01/13/25•

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Mike Wallace
Feb 16, 2011; Daytona Beach, FL, USA; NASCAR Nationwide Series driver XXXX during practice for the DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

Mike Wallace was surprised to see that NASCAR disqualified him from the 2025 Daytona 500. The 65-year-old driver went to Facebook to share his reaction to not competing in NASCAR’s biggest race of the year.

“To my utter shock and devastation at 4:00 today, NASCAR competition director Elton Sawyer called me to inform me that NASCAR has decided not only to not approve me for Daytona 500 but at this time not approved to race in the Cup, Xfinity and Truck series in 2025 but could go through there process to possibly get approved for 2026,” Wallace wrote in the post that was published on Monday. “This comes as a total shock as the President of NASCAR last week in a real phone call told me all was good and he will see me in Daytona. I owe this posting to all my fans and non-fans who were so supportive through the great messages and postings of support as they say I inspired them!”

On Jan, 2 MBM Motorsports announced Mike Wallace would return to NASCAR and compete in the Daytona 500. MBM confirmed on Monday Wallace was disqualified from the Daytona 500 and other competitions in NASCAR due to him not competing in a Cup Series race since 2015.

More on Mike Wallace not competing in the 2025 Daytona 500

“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,” the team said in a press release. “We are devastated for Mike and the Wallace family that this opportunity will not come to fruition. For MBM, we must regroup at this late stage with the loss of our driver and sponsor for The Great American Race. Our team is working swiftly to sign another funded driver for Speedweeks in order to still attempt the 67th Daytona 500.”

In his NASCAR Cup Series career, Wallace competed in 197 Cup Series races and earned 14 top-10 finishes with no wins. Wallace has raced in 11 Daytona 500s from 1992 to 2015 and finished in the top 10 three times. Mike Wallace is the younger brother of Rusty Wallace and the older brother of Kenny Wallace.