Daytona 500 Qualifying: Start Time, How to Watch & More

What’s the Great American Race if you don’t know which cars are lining up where? Not much, honestly, which is why the first real intrigue of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is today with Daytona 500 qualifying setting the front row for this year’s event.

Daytona 500 qualifying begins at 8:15 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on FS1. You can also listen in live on MRN or SiriusXM if you aren’t able to watch.

Need a quick refresher on why the qualifying procedure is different from every other Cup Series race of the season? We got you.

How Daytona 500 Qualifying Works

Like other Cup races, the Daytona 500 qualifying procedure starts with every car making a single lap around Daytona International Speedway. The fastest 10 cars move on to a second round and each make another lap, with the top two cars from that round earning the pole and outside front row starting spots for the 500.

For every other driver, their qualifying time still matters, as it will determine both which Duel race they will compete in on Thursday (Feb. 13) and their starting spot in that race. The drivers whose times fall in odd-numbered spots on the final list of qualifying times (first, third, fifth, etc.) will start in one Duel with those in even-numbered spots in the other.

While the front row qualifiers are locked into their spots regardless of their Duel result, sometimes falling to the back out of caution, the rest of the Daytona 500 grid is set by the results of the Duels. That means even someone with a relatively slow lap in qualifying can start on row 2 this Sunday by winning a Duel.

How Many Drivers Will Qualify for the 2025 Daytona 500?

For the first time, we don’t know the answer to this question and won’t until Thursday night — and it’s all thanks to Helio Castroneves.

There are 45 drivers entered for the 2025 Daytona 500, and the standard size of the Cup Series field is 40, so in most years that would mean five drivers going home unhappy. But NASCAR threw in a new twist for this season with its Open Exemption Provisional, which assures that “world-class drivers who enter a NASCAR Cup Series race” can make the field even though they aren’t competing for points or even prize money.

That description fits Castroneves, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, to a tee. If he is fast enough by either time or in his Duel to make the field, there will be 40 cars in the Daytona 500.

Otherwise, Castroneves will still get to compete Sunday (Feb. 16) and essentially give another driver a bonus spot. That puts some of the bubble drivers in the unusual position of rooting against the Brazilian, which is one of the quirks of the new provisional rule.

As a reminder, you can see how the Duels play out and complete Daytona 500 qualifying in earnest by tuning in Thursday night on FS1, with the first race starting at 7 p.m. ET and the second scheduled for approximately 8:45 p.m.

Nick Tylwalk

Frontstretch Managing Editor