It’s finally here. The preliminary events are over. It’s time for the Daytona 500 today.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will lead the field to the green flag and be joined on the front row by Alex Bowman. Jimmie Johnson will make his final Daytona 500 start today. Denny Hamlin seeks to be the first driver to win this race in back-to-back years since Sterling Marlin won this race in 1994-95.
Here is all the info for today’s race:
(All times are Eastern)
START: President Donald Trump will give the command to start engines 3:06 p.m. The green flag is scheduled to wave at 3:18 p.m.
PRERACE: Garage opens at 9 a.m. Driver/crew chief meeting is at 12:30 p.m. Driver introductions are at 2:15 p.m. The invocation will be given by Ronnie Barton, former pastor of First Baptist Church of South Daytona at 2:53 p.m. The USAF Band with Sgt. Nalani Quintello will perform the National Anthem at 2:54 p.m. followed by the United States Air Force Thunderbirds fly by.
DISTANCE: The race is 200 laps (500 miles) around the 2.5-mile speedway.
STAGES: Stage 1 ends on Lap 65. Stage 2 ends on Lap 130.
TV/RADIO: Fox will broadcast the race with coverage beginning at 1 p.m. Motor Racing Network’s broadcast begins at 1:30 p.m. and also can be heard on mrn.com. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will carry MRN’s broadcast.
FORECAST: Wunderground.com forecast calls for a high of 74 degrees with a 15% chance of rain at the start of the race.
LAST TIME: Denny Hamlin finished ahead of Kyle Busch and Erik Jones in a 1-2-3 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing in last year’s Daytona 500. Justin Haley won the rain-shortened July Daytona race, finishing ahead of William Byron and Jimmie Johnson.
TO THE REAR: Ryan Blaney (backup car) Corey LaJoie (backup car), Denny Hamlin (inspection failures), Brennan Poole (engine change and inspection failures), Ty Dillon (gear change), BJ McLeod (transmission change) and Christopher Bell (unapproved adjustments).
STARTING LINEUP: Click here for starting lineup