DAYTONA BEACH, FL – FEBRUARY 15: Actor Tom Cruise sits inside the car used in the film “Days of Thunder” on track prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
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NASCAR fans can rejoice. Or perhaps begin preparing themselves for the inevitable urge to quote Harry Hogge at strangers. Because after decades of rumors, whispers, teasing and the sort of speculation normally reserved for Elvis sightings and alien landings, a Days of Thunder sequel is officially on the fast track to theaters.
News of the long-awaited follow-up to the 1990 original was revealed Saturday. The new film will again star Tom Cruise, who will be joined by Anne Hathaway.
Few details are known beyond the fact that Cruise will reprise his role as NASCAR driver Cole Trickle. Hathaway will reportedly play a team owner and engineer. The film will be directed by Jonathan Levine and filmed for IMAX.
Which means, presumably, this will not be a small affair.
The 1990 version of Days of Thunder featured Cruise as Trickle, staging something of an invasion into what was then a largely Southern sport after arriving from the world of open-wheel racing. The character was loosely based on NASCAR driver Tim Richmond, the wildly talented Ohio native who was one of the sport’s biggest stars at the time.
In the movie, Trickle’s relationship with his crew chief Harry Hogge, played by Robert Duvall, was central to the story. There were fast cars, spectacular crashes, arguments, romance and enough engine noise to make your living room windows nervous.
The movie was considered a hit and remains wildly popular among NASCAR fans, many of whom have spent the last three decades wondering when Hollywood might decide it was time to go back to Daytona.
That wish, it seems, has finally been granted.
The timing is hardly accidental. NASCAR has enjoyed something of a resurgence in popular culture in recent years. There have been miniseries, documentaries and even a sitcom using NASCAR as its backdrop. So the arrival of a major feature film centered around the sport should perhaps come as no surprise.
Still, Days of Thunder is different.
This isn’t simply NASCAR appearing on a screen. This is Cole Trickle climbing back into the car.
A sequel has been whispered about, teased and highly anticipated for several years. In 2025, Jeff Gordon, who broke into NASCAR around the time the original movie was made, discussed the possibility during a press conference after Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron won the 2025 Daytona 500.
Hendrick Motorsports was heavily involved in the first movie, supplying cars and technical advice during filming. Gordon is also friends with Cruise. And when asked about the possibility of another Days of Thunder, Gordon said it would be “amazing.”
“Hendrick Motorsports being a part of that project, hard to imagine how you pull that off today because they actually had race cars with cameras in the race, and the cameras were big,” he said. “Cameras have gotten a lot smaller so maybe you could pull it off, but how do you do it and make it realistic and really authentic.
“But I’ve absolutely talked to Tom about it because I want him to do the project, and we want “to be a part of it if it were to happen.
“He seems to like to tease it, so I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. If that doesn’t happen, I feel pretty confident there’s a project out there that will get NASCAR back on the big screen, if not just a really cool docuseries or something beyond even what we’re already seeing right now.”
Well, it is, in fact, happening.
And considering the spectacular success Cruise had with his Top Gun sequel, there is plenty of reason to believe lightning can strike twice. Or perhaps, in this case, at roughly 190 mph with the throttle buried and someone shouting into a radio.
Speedway president Frank Kelleher confirmed that both Cruise and Hathaway were at Daytona International Speedway this past week doing a promotional shoot for the new project.
LAS VEGAS, NV – DECEMBER 04: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jeff Gordon (L) is introduced by actor Tom Cruise to accept the Bill France Award of Excellence onstage during the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards show at Wynn Las Vegas on December 4, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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With a projected release date of June 2028, NASCAR fans — and the industry itself — can expect to see plenty of Cruise, Hathaway and movie crews at Daytona and other NASCAR tracks throughout 2027.
That alone should make for an interesting season.
And then, on June 2, 2028, many of those same NASCAR fans and industry members will likely find themselves sitting in IMAX theaters, popcorn in hand, or perhaps ice cream, waiting for the lights to go down and the engines to fire.
Nearly four decades after Cole Trickle first arrived in NASCAR and promptly began rearranging the furniture, Days of Thunder is finally getting another lap.
And as Harry Hogge once said:
“This is it! This is what it’s all about!”
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