NASCAR race at Daytona postponed after storms delay start. Here’s when they’ll race

Alex Zietlow
·2 min read
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UPDATE: (Catch live updates from Sunday’s race here.)

Daytona will have to wait another day.

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway has been postponed to 10 a.m. on Sunday, per NASCAR. The race will be broadcast on CNBC, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

The regular-season finale was supposed to begin a little after 7 p.m. on Saturday, but unrelenting rain and a not-promising local forecast into the night prompted NASCAR to pull the plug just after 8:20 p.m.

NASCAR’s race at Daytona will begin an hour after Formula 1’s Rolex Belgian Grand Prix starts on Sunday. The F1 race (slated to start at 9 a.m. on ESPN2) is much anticipated: It’s the first one since F1 began its scheduled four-week summer break in July.

Inclement weather defined Friday’s Xfinity race, too, which saw Jeremy Clements fly into Victory Lane a little after 1:30 a.m. after hours of start delays.

The news means that NASCAR drivers, teams and fans will have to make it through a night before seeing some of this season’s biggest story lines converge at one of the sport’s most thrilling venues.

In other words, 15 drivers will still be vying for those last two playoff spots — something that happened after Kurt Busch announced that he was taking himself out of the Cup Series championship chase because of his lingering head injury — and most of them will need to notch a win in order to do so.

Bubba Wallace, who finished second in the Daytona 500 in February, will need a win. So will Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher, teammates for RFK Racing who each won duels at Daytona earlier this season.

The Coke Zero 400 will feature 160 miles around Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5-mile trioval. Stage 1 is set to end on Lap 35, Stage 2 on Lap 95 and Stage 3 on Lap 160.

The purse for the race is $8,312,719.

Per NASCAR: “Grandstand tickets for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 will be honored. Parking lots will open Sunday at 7 a.m. ET with Free Parking available in Lots 3 and 6 (Lot 7 will not be open). All Saturday parking passes will be honored tomorrow.”