February 18, 10 a.m. update: The Daytona 500 has been postponed until Monday due to inclement weather. The race will begin at 4 p.m. ET.
February 17, 1:30 p.m. update: Xfinity Series qualifying is officially underway. The race start time has been moved from 5 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
February 17, 12:47 p.m. update: Xfinity Series qualifying is currently scheduled for 1:30 p.m. ET if the weather holds.
February 17, 11:13 a.m. update: Qualifying is on hold for the Xfinity Series United Rentals 300. It is likely to be canceled but for now it is simply delayed pending the rain slowing.
NASCAR opened its 2024 season at Daytona International Speedway on Friday night with the Fresh From Florida 250 Truck Series race, but things are getting dicier heading into the weekend. Rain has arrived and it’s resulted in some early cancellations on Saturday.
The Cup Series is running its season-opening Daytona 500, but the final practice session was washed out by rain on Saturday. It has been raining for a good chunk of the morning and the forecast at Accuweather has rain every hour the rest of the day. In fact, it’s not expected to stop raining until 11 a.m. on Sunday, and that could be followed by off and on showers the rest of Sunday.
The Daytona 500 is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon. If the rain continues, we could see a postponement. The weather is expected to clear up early Monday morning, so if we do see the Great American Race postponed, Monday would be a sufficiently clear day to run it.
The bigger issue before then is the Xfinity Series race scheduled for Saturday. The United Rentals 300 is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET with qualifying scheduled for 11:30 a.m. If qualifying is canceled, they’ll use the rulebook to determine the starting lineup for the race. But with rain in the forecast through Sunday, we could very well end up with a double-dip of racing on Monday.