In November 1989, Bobby Hamilton qualified fifth at Phoenix in a Chevrolet built for Days of Thunder. When a caution sent much of the field into the pits, Hamilton briefly took the lead in the No. 51 car, which was meant to bring Tom Cruise’s fictional racing world to life. NASCAR officials black-flagged him, and the car was called in.

Three months later, two of those cars lined up at the back of the 1990 Daytona 500. Neither was an official entry, and licensed Winston Cup drivers handled the wheel. They were unofficial entries: they would not count in the standings, earn prize money or collect championship points. Tom Cruise was at Daytona, too, but he wasn’t competing in the race. Thirty-six years later, Cruise reportedly wants to change that.

As he prepares to reprise Cole Trickle in the Days of Thunder sequel, NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell says the actor wants to enter a real ARCA Menards Series race. The request caught O’Donnell off guard, while 18-time Cup winner Kasey Kahne offered a reality check on what Cruise could be walking into.

“I didn’t realize that Tom wanted to do that,” Kahne said on the Rubbin is Racing podcast. “But, to me, things happen quickly in these races, and I feel like people would be pretty surprised in some of those scenarios if they didn’t have a lot of the learning that myself or a lot of these other guys have had long before they get into a NASCAR series. So, yeah, I’m not sure how that would work.”

The Cruise news came out Tuesday at Front Office Sports’ Tuned In event, where NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell discussed the sequel. He called ARCA NASCAR’s national touring series, then said, “Tom wanted to go race in one of those.” He admitted it floored him: “I was shocked.” He didn’t promise anything: “I’m not sure that’s going to happen.”

Kahne’s answer carries weight because of the road behind it: 529 Cup starts, 18 wins, three Coca-Cola 600s, and the 2017 Brickyard 400. None of that arrived overnight. Years of work came before the first Cup start, and when he talks about it, he goes back to the very beginning.

“I love how I started,” Kahne said. “I started in mini sprints, sprint cars, midgets; did some pavement, dirt, a bit of everything; and then got my opportunity in NASCAR. I felt like I was just way more prepared by the time I got to that point. And even then, it was still way different from anything I’d ever done up to that point in my career.”

Now he’s heading back into the deep end. Kahne, 46, will run the full 2027 Truck Series schedule for Spire Motorsports, starting Feb. 19 at Daytona, nine years after health problems ended his full-time Cup career. He last drove a truck in 2015 and won five of his six starts.

Cruise isn’t a stranger to risk or to prep work. He has scaled the Burj Khalifa and ridden a motorcycle off a cliff in Norway for a BASE jump, both for movies. In 1987, before the original film, he tested a Busch Series car at Daytona with Hendrick Motorsports and touched about 178 mph. He drove a Red Bull Formula One car at Willow Springs in 2011. Those were test sessions and stunts, not 30 cars fighting for the same piece of asphalt.

Famous names have crossed over before, and the best of them earned it. Paul Newman finished second at the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans at age 54, sharing a Porsche 935 with Dick Barbour and Rolf Stommelen. Patrick Dempsey took second in the GTE Am class at Le Mans in 2015.

McFarland’s education has been loud and public. The YouTuber, whose real name is Garrett Mitchell, made his ARCA debut at Daytona in February 2025 and finished 30th after a Lap 15 crash. His Truck Series debut at the same track this February lasted six laps before he wrecked, and he was scored 37th in a 37-truck field. A day later, back in an ARCA car, he finished 11th.

Frankie Muniz is the better yardstick. The former Malcolm in the Middle star ran the full 2023 ARCA season and finished fourth in points with one top-five and 11 top-10s. He went full-time in trucks in 2025 and ran 10th at the Daytona opener. 

This year he’s 25th in points with a best finish of 16th. In August, he gave up his No. 33 Ford at New Hampshire so teammate Luke Baldwin could race. On Oct. 11 in Indianapolis, he and Tyler Stone clinched the GT4 America Am championship. A real resume, and the trucks still shove him around. That is Kahne’s point in numbers.

Nobody expects Cruise to become a regular. At most, this is one start, and O’Donnell’s own wording makes even that a maybe. NASCAR has owned ARCA since 2018, so the call stays in-house. If it happens, a global star will be sitting in an ARCA field, while NASCAR builds 80 cars for his film. But the field won’t care who is in the seat. Kahne has spent a career learning how quickly a race can turn on you. Cruise gets one afternoon to find out.