Sanford's Nolan Wilson returns to Kimmel Racing for Daytona ARCA opener

Nolan Wilson, a Sanford driving instructor, will return to the high banks of Daytona International Speedway to pilot the No. 69 for Kimmel Racing in the ARCA Menards Series opener, the Daytona ARCA 200, on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. The veteran driver will race a Chevrolet SS - a change from the Fords he drove in 2025 - and the entry carries hometown backing from JD Weber Construction of East Volusia County. The race will be broadcast exclusively on FOX.

Wilson highlighted the equipment upgrade after January testing at Daytona, saying, "We were lucky enough to acquire a super speedway car from REV Racing. As the results have shown, it’s a pretty good piece. No excuses this time." The #69 Chevrolet first hit the high banks for ARCA Menards Series testing in January, giving Wilson and the Kimmel crew a chance to sort the super speedway setup ahead of the Valentine’s Day race.

Team owner Bill Kimmel Jr. spoke to the team’s goals coming off an interrupted Daytona effort last year. "Looking forward to Daytona this year," Kimmel said. He noted the 2025 Daytona run ended early after Wilson was "wrapped up in someone else’s wreck" and that the team "only got to run 18-19 laps." Kimmel added the team believes the new Chevrolet SS can "produce a better finish" for Wilson this season.

Wilson brings deep local experience at Daytona to the effort. As a longtime driving instructor at Daytona International Speedway, he estimated in a 2000 interview that he had turned "more than 10,000 laps" behind the wheel of a race car. His competitive résumé also includes four NASCAR Goody’s Dash Series events between 2000 and 2002, with three of those starts coming at Daytona. He was 50 in 2025 when he returned to the superspeedway program and ran both super speedway races for Kimmel Racing that season.

Kimmel Racing’s 2025 approach had Wilson announced in the No. 69 Ford Mustang with Scott Melton riding as a teammate in the No. 68 Ford Fusion, a two-car plan intended to help in testing and race strategy. The current plan for 2026 shifts Wilson into the Chevrolet SS acquired from REV Racing and pairs that chassis with local sponsorship from JD Weber Construction, underscoring Central Florida roots on the paint scheme.

Wilson and Kimmel will aim to build on a solid showing earlier last season at Talladega, where the team finished 14th in April 2025, while avoiding a repeat of the early exit at last year’s Daytona event. With testing complete and national television coverage locked on FOX for Feb. 14, Sanford’s racing community will have a familiar driver to follow as the ARCA season gets underway.