NASCAR announced that it would not only not allow Mike Wallace to compete in the Daytona 500, but he would not be able to compete in any NASCAR races in 2025.

A post on NASCAR.com states, “NASCAR competition officials confirmed Monday that driver Mike Wallace is not approved for his previously announced attempt to qualify for this year’s Daytona 500.”

As for why he was barred from competition, the post stated, “Because Wallace has not raced on an intermediate or larger race track since 2015, at this time he is not approved to race at the NASCAR Cup Series level.”

The post noted his last NASCAR Cup race was in the Daytona 500 in 2015 where he finished 36th. He did compete in three races for JD Motorsports in the Xfinity Series in 2020. Wallace has won three times at Daytona. Back in 1994 he won in the ARCA Menards Series. Then in 2000 he won in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. His third win came in 2004 in the Xfinity Series.

Wallace reacted to the news on Facebook, “To my utter shock and devastation at 4:00 today NASCAR competetion 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. 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.”

He continued, “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! Please -Please show your Love and support to Carl Long and the complete MBM Motorsports team as this has now put them in a terrible position as I was not just the driver but also committed to sponsorship for there Daytona 500 effort,I had sponsorship commitments for the effort around me and. Help them find an approved driver and plenty of money! Thank you Doug Yates for being in my corner and supportive. I guess we won’t get that Daytona 500 pit road picture after all.”

Wallace concluded, “Brother Kenny, I Love you and thanks for showing me so much Love! In closing on Jan 22 will be the one year date of my wife of 44 years Carla’s passing. I Love my family and we had a plan for a great family picture on pit road at Daytona.”

Wallace announced he was going to attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 back on January 2nd during an appearance on his brother Kenny’s YouTube channel.

He said, “What happened is real simple. Carl Long and I have raced together before in the past and I was reading a little posting Carl had put up about all the great things he had going on with his race team and had a Yates motor for Daytona, but hadn’t had a driver aligned yet. I thought, ‘Heck, let me call him. Let me see what he’s doing.’ And literally this conversation happened at 11 o’clock one night, we texted back and forth. We texted until midnight and at midnight he goes, ‘I want you to drive my car in the Daytona 500.'”

What do you make of NASCAR barring Mike Wallace from competing in the Daytona 500?

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