Chandler Smith will attempt to qualify for this year’s 67th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway with Garage 66.
The 22-year-old Smith from Talking Rock, Georgia, will be piloting the No. 66 Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry from Garage 66 with sponsorship support from QuickTie throughout this year’s Daytona Speedweeks, beginning on February 12 for the season-opener’s Busch Light Pole Qualifying session.
The news comes as Smith is scheduled to campaign full-time in this year’s Craftsman Truck Series season with Front Row Motorsports. The Georgian returns to the series in 2025 after he previously achieved five victories, claimed the 2021 Rookie-of-the-Year title and contended for the 2022 championship in the Championship 4 round. During the 2023 and 2024 seasons, he raced in the Xfinity Series division between Kaulig Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing. Between both seasons, he notched three victories and made the Playoffs.
The 2025 season is set to mark Smith’s second attempt to qualify for the Great American Race in NASCAR’s premier series after he fell short while driving for Kaulig Racing in 2023. Despite missing the Daytona 500, he would make his first three Cup career starts throughout the 2023 campaign and finish in the top 17 in all of his events, including a season-best 11th-place run at Talladega Superspeedway in April.
“I’m very excited for the opportunity to race our way into the Daytona 500 with Garage 66,” Smith said in a released statement. “Being in The Great American Race is such an honor, and I can’t thank QuickTie and [team owner] Carl Long enough for helping put this all together.”
Smith’s partnership with Garage 66 also comes more than a week after a whirlwind of emotions involving driver changes for the organization’s entry ahead this year’s Daytona Speedweeks. Nine days ago, veteran Mike Wallace, who initially announced in early January that he would attempt to make the 2025 Great American Race with Garage 66, was not approved to compete due to being inactive from major motorsports competition since he last competed in the 500 in 2015.
Throughout this past weekend, Garage 66 was rebranded from its former name, MBM Motorsports, in the Cup Series division, and Garrett Smithley was named the team’s driver for the Cook Out Clash festivities at Bowman Gray Stadium scheduled for February 1-2. Amid the team’s established plans to participate for a starting spot in the Clash, they were unable to solidify any driver plans for the Daytona 500 until the pieces aligned for Smith to be selected as the competitor on January 22, 2025.
“The last few days have been a whirlwind of phone calls and emails after Mike Wallace was not approved to be the driver of our Daytona 500 entry,” Carl Long said. “After several days of non-stop communication with available drivers who could race a Ford, the pieces came together to place Chandler Smith in our car. I am super pleased to have Chandler in our seat. He has friends behind the wheel of the other cars. At Daytona, we will need all the friends we can find to help race our way into the show! There are a lot of really quality cars attempting this race, which could easily make the most exciting part of the 2025 Daytona 500 the race to be in the race. With Roush-Yates power and Chandler behind the wheel, the odds of Garage 66 and our No. 66 team making the event just got stronger.”
With Garage 66 entering this year’s Daytona Speedweeks without a guaranteed charter to make the Daytona 500, Smith will have to rely on either his speed during the Busch Light Pole Qualifying session on February 12 at 8:15 p.m. ET or through his result in the Daytona Duels scheduled for February 13 at 7 p.m. ET to outduel additional non-chartered entries and earn a starting spot for the Great American Race.
The 2025 Daytona 500 is scheduled for February 16, with a coverage time slated to commence at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
