You on the lookout for a longshot in ? A possible ?
How ’bout if it’s additionally a man with a fame for consolation in big-pack racing with a few wins on the ?
Oh, additionally, he’s a 65-year-old widower.
Carl Lengthy, a here-and-there in , introduced Thursday he’s employed Mike Wallace — of the earlier era’s racing Wallace brothers — to enter the within the workforce’s No. 66 Ford.
KEN WILLIS:
In a press launch, Wallace stated he’s excited to return to the Daytona 500 after “being away for just a few years.”
A couple of years?
Rusty’s little brother has raced at Daytona as soon as up to now 18 years, and that was a decade in the past. To his credit score, Mike was a snug slot in superspeedway pack-racin’ and recorded top-10s in over 1 / 4 of his Daytona Cup Sequence begins (5-for-19). He final raced NASCAR in 2020, when he entered three Xfinity races.
He’s gained twice at Daytona, as soon as within the Xfinity Sequence and as soon as in a truck, in Daytona’s inaugural Truck Sequence race in 2000, finest recognized for Geoff Bodine’s death-defying crash.
NASCAR Wallace brothers have an extended historical past
Mike’s brother, Kenny, ran his final Daytona 500 in 2008. Large brother Rusty, a NASCAR Corridor of Famer, ended his profession in 2005 with 55 profession Cup wins.
The Wallace brothers are from the St. Louis space and raced a ton of Cup Sequence races collectively on the identical Sundays. For sure, Mike is perhaps the one brother going inexperienced on Feb. 16 at Daytona for the 67th working of the Nice American Race.
And it could come 13 months after he misplaced his spouse of 44 years, Carla, who died of most cancers final January.
This previous yr, Mike Wallace stated, was a devastating yr, however “2025 brings contemporary pleasure, beginning with this Daytona 500 announcement. They are saying it’s important to be in it to win it, and we’re rolling into Daytona with the prospect to each be part of after which race to win the Daytona 500!”
