A shattered dream is now spurring desperate changes. The 2025 Daytona 500 is going to witness some eclectic motorsports stars – ranging from Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves to NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. Among them, 9-time NASCAR national race winner Mike Wallace was also involved. However, the higher-ups axed his ambitions, putting his team in a desperate position.

After a long time, MBM Motorsports was dabbling its hand in the Cup Series. They returned to NASCAR’s premier level for the first time in two years at the 2024 Circuit of The Americas race. The team wanted to continue this effort in Daytona this season. However, as NASCAR did not let it, it is now resorting to a measure that irks fans.

Mike Wallace’s misery sparks a major tweak

MBM started off initially as a tributary of owner Carl Long’s own driving career. Besides making 174 starts across all three NASCAR national series, Long worked as a driver, a crew chief, a mechanic, and many other garage roles. In 2014, he co-founded Motorsports Business Management LLC. While it operated as MBM Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, the team was called Power Source in the Cup Series. However, the name is hardly the important factor. Long’s team has never won, with its best finish being a runner-up finish at the 2022 Daytona 500. Mike Wallace offered a shot to reverse this drab streak – he owns two Daytona wins in Xfinity and Craftsman Truck – but NASCAR stole that chance.

Now Mike Wallace’s misery is compelling MBM Motorsports to consider a few desperate measures to revamp its Cup program. The first is a complete rebranding of the team. Journalist Bob Pockrass updated MBM’s new name on Twitter: “Carl Long’s MBM Motorsports will rebrand its Cup program under the name Garage 66. Its plans for the start of the season should be finalized soon. @NASCARONFOX.” Although MBM came back to the Cup Series in 2024, its results have not impressed.

Timmy Hill, the MBM entry for Circuit of the Americas, wheeled the No. 66 Ford to a 36th-place finish. Then David Starr wheeled the same car at   – and finished 37th out of 37 cars. Then B.J. McLeod ran for the team at the Coca-Cola 600 – even he finished last just like David Starr. Despite the glaring faults in race performance, Carl Long is instead focusing on his team’s image. According to quotes from Speedway Digest, Long’s objective is improvement in the long run. “The new name and logo the streamlining of our team to fewer people with higher standards. We want to deliver great race cars to each track we compete at and produce solid finishes with fewer mistakes.”

The NASCAR community is not so sure about the team’s name-changing conviction, though.

Fans call out MBM’s half-hearted effort

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Well, changing a team’s name is not going to make a revolutionary change to internal problems. Both Timmy Hill and David Starr, who competed under MBM’s banner last year, had not competed in the Cup Series since 2022. B.J. McLeod competed for Liv Fast Motorsports earlier. He failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 and fetched 24th and 32nd place finishes in Atlanta and Talladega, respectively. Now after NASCAR axing Mike Wallace‘s ambition, MBM is nowhere close to glory. Thus, a fan is convinced that MBM’s rebranding will hardly help: “he should take all cup funding and reassess the team into a full time truck/arca program. they are no where near competitive…”

Every small-scale team is linked with a premier-level team of the same OEM for sharing crucial resources. For instance, 23XI Racing relied on Toyota resources at Joe Gibbs Racing. Front Row Motorsports had a connection with Team Penske under Ford. However, MBM is yet to ink such a crucial bond, and that is what a fan said its fault is: “beacon for ringers from other series (IMSA, Indy, V8, etc) at road tracks. Unless they have a engineering connection to a major team, they’ll have a hard time winning.”

Then the name change is hardly a jaw-dropping revamp. Garage 66 simply refers to the lone car that MBM fields – the No. 66 Ford entry. Changing its public appearance will not heal race performances. So a fan commented sarcastically: “Did Motorsports Business Management Motorsports not roll off the tongue?” Some people think that MBM is trying to imitate Trackhouse Racing. Justin Marks’ team fields the Project 91 entry – the No. 91 Chevrolet that Shane van Gisbergen wheeled to his Chicago victory. “The TrackHouse effect,” a fan wrote. Another fan said the new name resembles Tricon Garage, a dominant Craftsman Truck Series team. They wrote, “tricon garage… garage 56… bruh since when did garage become such a trend??”

Evidently, MBM is not stirring up a load of excitement with its rebranding. As its Mike Wallace-Daytona 500 entry remains canceled, let us see if the team can fetch some good races this season.