The NASCAR Cup Series begins anew with the 67th running of the Daytona 500.
The Great American Race has been opening the NASCAR Cup Series season at Daytona International Speedway since 1982.
Denny Hamlin leads active drivers with three Daytona 500 victories.
Due to the threat of inclement weather, NASCAR moved up the start of the race Friday afternoon by an hour with the race broadcast of prerace festivities beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET on Fox and the green flag at 2 p.m.
Details for Sunday’s Daytona 500
(All times Eastern)
START: The green flag is scheduled to wave at 2 p.m. (after being set for originally 3:11 p.m.)
PRERACE: The Cup garage opens at 6 a.m. ... The drivers meeting will begin at 12:15 p.m. ... Driver introductions will be at 12:50 p.m. ... Air Force Technical Sergeant Michael J. Aiello will perform the national anthem at 1:33 p.m. ... The annual Thunderbirds flyover will be at 1:34 p.m. ... Grand marshal Anthony Mackie, the star of “Captain America: Brave New World” will give the command to start engines at 1:45 p.m.
DISTANCE: The race is 200 laps (500 miles) on the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
STAGES: Stage 1 ends at Lap 65. Stage 2 ends at Lap 130.
TV/RADIO: Fox will begin its race broadcast at 1:30 p.m. with prerace starting at 11:30 a.m. Motor Racing Network coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will carry the MRN broadcast.
FORECAST: Weather Underground — Partly cloudy with a high of 81 degrees and a 21% chance of rain at the start of the Daytona 500.
LAST TIME: William Byron was ruled barely ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman when the caution flew just after the white flag, winning the Daytona 500 to kick off his team’s 40th anniversary season.
