Daytona 500 schedule and the right way to watch 2024 NASCAR Cup opener

The world-famous Daytona 500 will kickstart the 76th season of NASCAR racing the place Staff Penske’s Ryan Blaney will begin his championship protection.   

Drivers will deal with 500 miles across the illustrious Daytona Worldwide Speedway which, simply lower than one month in the past, hosted the enthralling Daytona 24 Hours the place Porsche Penske Motorsport gained by 2.1 seconds forward of Cadillac in a grandstand end on its 3.56-mile highway course. 

However from the week commencing 12 February it will likely be time for America’s inventory automobiles to face the historic Florida venue’s 2.5-mile, high-banked oval with Ricky Stenhouse Jr because the defending Daytona 500 winner.  

Stenhouse Jr is considered one of seven Daytona 500 winners on this 12 months’s grid, but Blaney just isn’t considered one of them – having come extraordinarily shut and even been put within the wall by his Penske team-mate Austin Cindric on the sprint to the end line in 2022 – so will the newly-crowned Cup champion lastly clinch victory on the well-known speedway? 

When is the Daytona 500?  

• Date: Sunday 18 February
• Time: 2:30pm ET

The opening spherical of the 2024 NASCAR Cup season, the Daytona 500, begins at 2:30pm native time on Sunday 18 February.

However earlier than the Daytona 500 is qualifying on Wednesday, and the Duel races that set the grid behind the entrance row on Thursday, main as much as Sunday’s important occasion. 

How does qualifying work for the Daytona 500?

Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is in contrast to something in motorsport, significantly Method 1 the place all the things occurs on the identical weekend.

On the Tuesday earlier than, a random draw takes place and this decides the order automobiles will take to the observe for Wednesday’s qualifying. The ultimate 20 spots although are given to the 20 highest scoring drivers from the earlier 12 months, as a result of there is a bonus to setting a scorching lap later as a consequence of observe evolution.

Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is a single-car, one-lap format. So, every driver will get one flying lap across the tri-oval and the 2 quickest automobiles shall be locked into the front-row for Sunday’s Daytona 500. The opposite qualifying instances decide the beginning grid for each Duel races, which determine the line-up from third to fortieth for the Daytona 500.

The Duels are of 60 laps, protecting 150 miles, and the outcomes of the primary race decide the within row for the five hundred, whereas the second decides Sunday’s outdoors row.  

However 36 spots for the ‘Nice American Race’ are assured for chartered groups, who compete in each spherical throughout a NASCAR Cup season. This implies the opposite 4 spots are given to so-called ‘open groups’ who compete part-time, so there shall be drivers who fail to qualify for the Daytona 500 if there are over 40 entrants [at the time of writing there are 41 cars entered].

The 2 quickest open groups in one-lap qualifying will routinely qualify for the five hundred while not having to compete within the Duels. The opposite two spots are then decided by each Duels and the ultimate 4 grid positions for the Daytona 500 are assigned to the open groups. 

Solely after qualifying and the Duel races have been run does two follow classes happen, for race preparation on Friday and Saturday.

How can I watch the Daytona 500?

In America, FOX will broadcast the Daytona 500 dwell, with pre-race protection starting on FS1 at 11am ET, which is three and a half hours earlier than lights out. FOX Sports activities 1 will broadcast each session dwell for the Daytona 500, starting with qualifying on Wednesday at 8pm ET, and it is usually accessible by way of the FOX Sports activities app.

FOX Sports activities 1 will even dwell broadcast the NASCAR Xfinity Sequence and NASCAR Truck Sequence, that are each help occasions for the Cup Sequence at Daytona Worldwide Speedway. The Daytona 500 can also be accessible by way of FuboTV, YouTube TV, Sling TV and Hulu+, which means the motion could be dwell streamed on a cell or pill machine, in addition to a console.

Non-American viewers can watch the Daytona 500 by way of Viaplay Sports activities 1, who will broadcast sure classes through the week.

Viaplay Sports activities 1 will first dwell broadcast each Duels on Thursday 15 February with protection beginning at 11:30pm GMT. The community will subsequent broadcast the Daytona 500 on Sunday 18 February with its pre-race protection starting at 6:30pm GMT – one hour earlier than lights out.

Viaplay Complete Month-to-month prices £14.99 per 30 days for brand new clients.

The place can I watch highlights of the Daytona 500?

Final 12 months the NASCAR on FOX YouTube channel uploaded highlights quickly after the Daytona 500 had completed, whereas doing the identical for the classes which preceded it that week.

The official NASCAR YouTube channel at the moment has a full replay of the 2023 Daytona 500, so observe the varied NASCAR platforms to look at a highlights package deal – or the total race once more – as quickly because it drops. 

What kind of observe is Daytona Worldwide Speedway?  

Daytona’s tri-oval course is a 2.5-mile format with 4 designated corners which have a 31-degree banking, whereas it’s an 18-degree banking alongside the start-finish space, which is sited within the grandstand-lined tri-oval part.

The Daytona 500 options 200 laps of the oval which takes near 4 hours to finish. It’s considered one of three Cup circuits thought-about to be “drafting tracks” – when automobiles line up one behind one another to get a pace enhance just like the slipstream – alongside Talladega Superspeedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway. 

That is totally different to the sports activities automotive course used for the Daytona 24 Hours, which is a 3.56-mile format with 12 corners together with all 4 banked turns however a number of the infield part as nicely. 

Daytona 500 climate forecast  

Contemplating Daytona’s location alongside the Florida shoreline, rain just isn’t too frequent on the 500 as a consequence of its February date. And long-range forecasts are sometimes unreliable as a consequence of its tropical local weather, nonetheless…

The most recent forecast just isn’t excellent news: Following heavy rain on Saturday (97% probability with half an inch anticipated), Sunday’s is sort of as dangerous – a 75% probability of rain through the day (with one other half an inch predicted) and occasional rain showers within the night, when the race might be run underneath floodlights into the small hours.

Air temperature maxes out throughout the weekend at 61F and drivers would more likely to face a stout northerly breeze as nicely, which all the time impacts the drafting.

Monday’s forecast is healthier, with a 38% probability of rain showers through the day and 11% at evening.

When it final rained for the five hundred, in 2021, the race was delayed by virtually six hours – so when showers do fall on the speedway, they hit arduous! As with a lot of the American oval racing, the automobiles is not going to run if it does rain as they solely use slick tires.

Nevertheless, climate through the previous week just isn’t too dangerous with Daytona 500 qualifying and the Duels each anticipated to happen in sunny circumstances on Wednesday and Thursday. 

NASCAR at Daytona Speedweeks schedule