The world-famous Daytona 500 will kickstart the 76th season of NASCAR racing where Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney will commence his championship defence.
Drivers will tackle 500 miles around the illustrious Daytona International Speedway that, just less than one month ago, hosted the enthralling Daytona 24 Hours, where Porsche Penske Motorsport won by 2.1 seconds ahead of Cadillac in a grandstand finish on its 3.56-mile road course.
But, from the week commencing 12 February, it will be time for America's stock cars to face the historic Florida venue’s 2.5-mile, high-banked oval with Ricky Stenhouse Jr entering the race as the defending Daytona 500 winner.
Stenhouse Jr is one of seven Daytona 500 winners on this year’s grid, yet Blaney is not one of them – having come extremely close and even been put in the wall by his Penske team-mate Austin Cindric on the dash to the finish line in 2022 – so will the newly-crowned Cup champion finally clinch victory at the famous speedway?
Date: Sunday 18 February
Time: 7:30pm GMT/2:30pm ET
The opening round of the 2024 NASCAR Cup season, the Daytona 500, starts at 7:30pm in the United Kingdom and 2:30pm local time on Sunday 18 February.
But, before the Daytona 500, is qualifying on Wednesday and the Duel races that set the grid behind the front row on Thursday, leading up to Sunday’s main event.
Source: Autosport