It’s Race Day to start the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season — and the Daytona 500 green flag will be a little bit earlier than expected today.
Because of an inclement weather forecast, the 68th running of the Great American Race was moved up an hour to 1:30 p.m. ET with TV coverage on Fox and radio broadcasts on Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM’S NASCAR Channel. NASCAR announced the time change a day before the Feb. 15 season opener.
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According to WeatherUnderground, it’s expected to be 77 degrees with a 1% chance of rain at 1:30 p.m. today. Rain chances are expected to increase after 6 p.m. The biggest race of the NASCAR season generally takes about three hours to complete.
Seeking his first Daytona 500 win, Kyle Busch will start from the pole position alongside Chase Briscoe. Click here for the starting lineup.
NASCAR: Cup Qualifying
Kyle Busch grabs Daytona 500 pole, chasing a win that has eluded him for 20 starts
Busch is 0 for 20 in the Daytona 500 and hasn’t started in the top five since 2016, when he still drove for Joe Gibbs Racing.
William Byron is the two-time defending winner trying to become the first NASCAR driver in history with three consecutive Daytona 500 victories.
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The Daytona 500 has endured a spate of weather disruptions since its first postponement to Monday in 2012 (after the first 53 editions had gone off as scheduled). In 2014, the race was delayed by a 6-hour, 22-minute red flag, and then postponed after 20 laps to Monday in 2020.
The 2021 race was delayed by a 5-hour and 40-minute red flag, and the 2024 race was postponed to Monday by storms.
Last year, there was a three-hour, 10-minute red flag on Lap 9 because of rain.
