Mike Wallace talks about failed Daytona 500 plans

Yesterday at 03:56 AM

Above all else, Mike Wallace says he doesn‘t want to come across as bitter or mad about NASCAR denying his intent to race in the Daytona 500 for MBM‘s Garage 66.

But he is confused.

"I‘m confused over how the process took place, how it was supposed to take place," Wallace told Sportsnaut on Monday night. "I didn‘t know there was a process. Again, I don‘t want people to think I‘m pissed off and angry. I‘m just a good guy that wanted to race, had a good cause, and wanted to help a small team."

At this point, Wallace has made his case in the public, that he sought approval from NASCAR president Steve Phelps and that he and other senior leaders did not anticipate there being any issues — only for the competition department to ultimately deny him.

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The reason NASCAR gave at the time was 'inactivity,‘ as Wallace had only made four Xfinity Series road course starts for JD Motorsports in 2020 since his last Cup Series start in the 2015 Daytona 500.

Wallace doesn‘t dispute that he wasn‘t formally approved but he doesn‘t understand why 'no one stepped up to provide me the proper guidance‘ when he asked for it, while also indicating there would be no issues.

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Wallace was first told on January 15 that NASCAR wouldn‘t approve him for any national touring license. Now he‘s been told that to run the Daytona 500 next year, he would need to run a intermediate track Xfinity Series race, then an Xfinity Series superspeedway race and then a short track or road course Cup Series race to get acclimated to the NextGen car. After that, he would then need to run a Cup Series speedway race … all in 2025.

He says it‘s not worth it on several fronts.

See much more at Sportsnaut.