Nolan Wilson, who competed in four NASCAR Goody’s Dash Series events over a three-year span from 2000 to 2002 including three starts at Daytona International Speedway, is set to return to the high banks of Daytona in 2025 at the age of 50.
On Tuesday, Wilson announced his intentions to pilot the No. 69 Kimmel Racing Ford Mustang for the 2025 ARCA Menards Series season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway. Wilson will serve as a teammate to Scott Melton, who will compete in the team’s No. 68 Ford Fusion. The team is excited to have two cars in the pack at Daytona, and they feel it will allow them to compete well in the 200-mile race in February.
“We are really excited for Daytona 2025. Excited to have Nolan in the Mustang and Scott in the Fusion,” said team owner Bill Kimmel Jr. “Hopefully, we can benefit from having two cars that can help each other not only in testing but also the race itself.”
Wilson, a native of Sanford, Florida, is a longtime driving instructor at Daytona International Speedway, where, in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel in 2000, he estimated he had logged more than 10,000 laps behind the wheel of a race car.
However, it’s been 22 years since Wilson has been in a competitive race at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Wilson explained. “To partner with Kimmel Racing is phenomenal, Bill and the [No.] 69 team have such a rich tradition. As someone who grew up near this storied track, it’s a dream come true to finally get back behind the wheel and race at Daytona again.”
In three NASCAR Goody’s Dash Series starts at Daytona, Wilson achieved a career-best finish of 10th at the facility in the DaytonaUSA.com 150 in July 2001. Wilson finished 20th in the 2002 Goody’s Dash season-opener at Daytona, and he was swept up in a second-lap crash in his series debut at Daytona in 2000, which resulted in a 36th-place finish.
According to a press release from the Kimmel Racing team, Jerry Nadeau, a winner of one NASCAR Cup Series race in a 177-race career, will also make his return to Daytona International Speedway in February as an advisor for Wilson.
“Nolan and I have worked together for years, he’s a good dude and a talented driver,” Nadeau said. “I’ll be around to help however I can. He’s got an experienced team in Kimmel Racing. The sky is the limit at Daytona for the [No.] 69 to kick off the season.”
Wilson will get acclimated to the No. 69 Kimmel Racing Ford in ARCA Menards Series preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway on January 9, and 10 before returning to race the following month in the ARCA Menards Series season-opening race.
