STATESVILLE, N.C. — Garage 66 has signed Chandler Smith to attempt to make the 67th Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway, driving the No. 66 QuickTie Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
The Talking Rock, Ga. native has ascended the NASCAR ranks and already picked up several race victories in his young career. After graduating from the ARCA Menards Series with 10 wins, Smith has earned five NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wins and three NASCAR Xfinity Series wins, including two last season on his way to a Top-five finish in the championship.
This year, he will be racing full-time for Front Row Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series.
“I’m very excited for the opportunity to race our way into the Daytona 500 with Garage 66,” Smith said. “Being in The Great American Race is such an honor, and I can’t thank QuickTie and Carl Long enough for helping put this all together.”
The 22-year-old already has NextGen superspeedway race experience, finishing in the top 15 in the 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. He has top-20 finishes in all three of his Cup Series starts to date.
Carl Long, who operates Garage 66 with co-owners Rocky and Tom Smith as well as John Jackson, had a tumultuous few days after Mike Wallace was ruled ineligible to compete in the 500 and had to scramble to put another deal together.
“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,” 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.”
The hood of the MBM Cup entry during Speedweeks will carry QuickTie, a proprietary, patented hold-down system for high wind and seismic construction.
Coble Enterprises, which specializes in personalized property management for residential and commercial properties, remains committed to the No. 66 team in Daytona as an associate sponsor.
