Garage 66 is looking for a new beginning

The team that wanted to use Mike Wallace in the Daytona 500 this year – only for NASCAR to tell them the old bureaucratic “no” – has found a new driver. But hold on: This isn’t for the Daytona 500, and technically it’s not even the same team anymore.

Confused? Buckle up. We’ll catch up with you.

MBM Motorsports – short for Motorsports Business Management – ​​was/is owned by former driver Carl Long. A few weeks ago they announced with much fanfare that they were putting 65-year-old Mike Wallace back in a Cup Series car for the Great American Race. However, NASCAR had other ideas. “Not so fast,” they said, no doubt enjoying the irony. Your reasoning? Wallace hadn’t set foot in a Cup car since 2015, and his last NASCAR event of any kind came way back in 2020. Apparently that was a step too far for NASCAR. Cue hurt feelings for Wallace and a hectic struggle to ensure that MBM can fill the suddenly vacant Daytona 500 seat.

Now it’s getting spicy: MBM is no longer the same as MBM. Last week, Carl Long announced that the team had undergone a rebrand and will henceforth operate under that name Garage 66. The reason? Simplicity, as Long explained:

“For 2025, we are renaming our NASCAR Cup Series entry Garage 66. The new name and logo reflect the streamlining of our team to fewer people with higher standards. We want to deliver great race cars and achieve solid results with fewer mistakes on every track we compete on. Management and responsibility become much less stressful when there is only one car and far fewer people on the track most weekends.”

ForbesNASCAR says no: Mike Wallace leaves Daytona 500From Greg Engle

Translation: We cut corners and hope that less really is more.

With the name change comes a new beginning, and on Saturday Garage 66 announced a new driver. Step forward Garrett Smithleywho will control the team’s participation in the pre-season clash at Bowman Gray Stadium – a short-track spectacle on February 2 that promises more carnage than an amateur demolition derby.

Smithley is no stranger to NASCAR, having made 76 Cup Series starts, most recently in 2022. He also has 180 Xfinity Series starts, including 33 last season, and finished 2024 with the Xfinity Series. Race in Phoenix. Some of these launches were even with MBM – sorry, Garage 66. Smithley said he was delighted to be reuniting with Carl Long’s team:

“It’s great to be back in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2025. I had been talking to Carl for a while about putting something together and finally all the pieces fell into place. I look forward to running this historic race at Bowman Gray and hope we can do more together throughout the year.”

Long was equally enthusiastic:

“It’s been a while since Garrett last drove for our organization, but I’m glad to have him back in our car. He has a solid deal with Xfinity that also gives him more freedom to race in Cup. Garrett knows how to take care of his equipment and be there at the end.”

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The Clash at Bowman Gray – a quarter-mile bullring where tempers flare faster than engines overheat – marks the return of Cup racing to the Madhouse for the first time since 1971. There will be no championship points at stake, just bragging rights and a review. The field will be determined by heat racing, and with Smithley’s short track experience, there’s little chance NASCAR will block this entry.

“Garage 66 doesn’t have the expensive simulators that some other teams use, but Garrett has done well on short courses and they don’t get much shorter than Bowman Gray,” Long said. “We will have a great start to the 2025 season.”

But here’s the million-dollar question: Will Smithley be her man for the Daytona 500? This is a story that is still waiting for its final chapter.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Garrett Smithley is 32 years old.