The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway will take place one day later than originally scheduled
The official 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season opener, the 66th running of the Daytona 500, will not take place on Sunday but on Monday (Feb. 19). The postponement was announced early by NASCAR on Sunday. The reason for the postponement is once again the weather
The forecast at Daytona International Speedway in the US state of Florida indicates a consistently high risk of rain for the rest of Sunday. As a result, the Daytona 500 has now been postponed to Monday, just as the Daytona race of the second NASCAR league (Xfinity Series) was postponed the day before.
The new start time for the Daytona 500 of the NASCAR Cup Series is Monday, 22:00 CET (16:00 local time). (Schedule and TV times for the Daytona 500 of the 2024 NASCAR season)
The starting grid for the 66th Daytona 500 sees Joey Logano (Penske-Ford) as pole-sitter and Michael McDowell (Front Row Ford) next to him on the front row. These two starting positions were determined in pole qualifying, the individual time trial on Wednesday evening. The other 38 of the total of 40 grid positions were determined in the two Duels, the two qualifying races on Thursday evening.
NEWS: The DAYTONA500 has been postponed to Monday at 4 p.m. ET due to inclement weather.
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With the officially confirmed postponement of the Daytona 500 to Monday, what had already been in the air throughout the week due to the weather forecast has now materialized. Because Monday is a public holiday in the USA (Presidents’ Day), significantly more spectators are expected on site despite the postponement than would be the case on other Mondays of the year.
This year’s Daytona 500 has been officially sold out for weeks. Since a rebuild of the grandstands, which was completed in 2016, there are now 101,000 seats at the famous 2.5-mile oval. The infield of the track can accommodate thousands more spectators, but without permanent grandstands. In the golden age of NASCAR, before the renovation, Daytona International Speedway even had up to 168,000 permanent seats
The Daytona 500 is just one of the races postponed this weekend due to weather. The Xfinity race at Daytona (originally scheduled for Saturday) has been rescheduled for Monday at 17:00 CET (11:00 local time).
This means that the season opener of NASCAR’s second division this year will take place just a few hours before the season opener of NASCAR’s top division.
Not affected by the schedule changes was the season opener of NASCAR’s third division (Truck Series). This race went off as scheduled on Friday evening at Daytona
