It’s less than a week before NASCAR rolls out its fullest fury on the 2.5-mile, high-banked oval in Florida. A new season means a lot of new expectations from the fans. Needless to say, NASCAR always puts in efforts to live up to those expectations. Just a mere glance at this year’s pre-race lineup is enough to prove that.
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Arguably, this year’s Daytona 500 lineup is the most star-studded one. The newly crowned Miss America, Madison Marsh, is about to serve the honorary position of the pace car driver, leading the field around the Daytona International Speedway before the flagman waves the green flag to the main event. President of Daytona International Speedway, Frank Kelleher said, “It’s an honor to have someone like Madison, who has so much spirit, passion and national pride, join us for the DAYTONA 500.”
Also, guess who will be waving the green flag to start the race? It’ll be none other than DJ Khaled.
NASCAR at Daytona (2024):
– Pre-race concert: Pitbull
– Command: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
– Pace car: Miss America
– Wave green flag: DJ KhaledThe most star-studded lineup I’ve ever seen for a NASCAR event.
— Austin Konenski (@AustinKonenski) February 12, 2024
But that’s just two of an array of celebrities who will be seen at the racetrack on February 18. NASCAR has ordained Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as this year’s Grand Marshal. Besides giving the command to start the engines, the wrestler-turned-actor will be promoting his new endeavor: the United Football League. Kelleher feels like very few people can match the energy around the pomp and show of “The Great American Race” and The Rock might be the only person who can pull it off.
With so much hype going on around the upcoming event, some might be wondering who will perform at the pre-race show. Well, this year, it’s going to be Armando Christian Pérez, AKA Pitbull. With over 40 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, the Grammy-winning rapper will grace the 66th edition of the prestigious race with his energetic performance.
Will bad weather derail the Daytona 500 this year?
Since times immemorial, fans have witnessed races getting canceled or postponed due to unfavorable weather conditions. And for this year’s Daytona 500, it’s an absolute pity to even imagine this line-up getting delayed due to rain. So what are the odds of that happening?
On February 14th, which is also the qualifying day for the 500, the weather forecast predicts a clear sky in the evening with the highest temperature of 58 degrees and a 4% chance of rain at the beginning of the qualifying, which might crank up to 5 by the end of the qualifying. The second qualifying on the following day could experience a 3% chance of rain.
Although those numbers don’t look that bad, the final practice session on the 17th has a 58% chance of experiencing a downpour. To make things worse, the final race day on the 18th will witness a temperature high of 61 degrees and a 51% chance of rain at the start of the race, which might range between 50% and 67% for the rest of the night. Surely, not good news. We can only pray that the coveted race doesn’t get postponed due to the weather.
