The Daytona 500 — the official NASCAR Cup Series opening race — has been postponed to Monday, Feb. 19, at 4 p.m. ET, NASCAR announced early Sunday morning (Feb. 18).
The forecast calls for heavy rain throughout the day on Sunday, with NASCAR making the decision to move the race relatively early in the day. With the NASCAR Xfinity Series race having already been postponed until 11 a.m. ET on Monday, this will mark the first time that the two races will be held on the same day.
Joey Logano will lead the field to green after taking the pole in qualifying on Wednesday (Feb. 14). Fellow Ford driver Michael McDowell will start besides him in second. Duel winners Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell will be in the second row, with the remainder of the field set by the Duel results on Thursday (Feb. 15).
The Cup Series race will be broadcast on FOX on Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET, while the Xfinity Series race will be broadcast on FOX Sports 1 at 11 a.m. ET.
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Nothing worse for NASCAR than having the biggest race of the year, and kick off to the season, undermined by weather. At least in this case it wasn’t the result of a stupid decision. Regardless of when the race was scheduled to start (should be 1PM at the latest) rain would have been an issue.
first time in 23 years I really don’t seem to mind if I miss the 500. I have a feeling that the race will be one of impatience and mistakes.
let’s do number deal they’ll race on the 19th, Truex is in the 19 and he’s won several monday races.
Who is in his 19th version of the 500? I can’t call it a race!
TSN5 at 11 and 4.
Busch event delayed to approx. 9.