The 76th season of NASCAR is set to begin with the Daytona 500 in just a few days. The 2024 edition of the iconic race will see Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney take his first step towards defending the championship title and the other 35 drivers take their chances towards grabbing it from him. Gear up, for the show weekend will begin as early as Wednesday.
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The Daytona 500 grid is made up of 40 cars of which 36 entries belong to teams with charters and the other 4 are for those without (Open Cars). As things stand, five drivers including Jimmie Johnson will be vying for those 4 open spots. The Daytona garage will lift its gates on Wednesday and the teams must enter their cars for qualifying on the same day.
Wednesday night will feature the single-car qualifying event. Every entry runs a lap around the 2.5-mile Daytona track to determine the front row (top 2 entries) for the main race on February 18 and the starting order for the Daytona Duels. Both the Duels will be held on Thursday with the entries being divided in two halves.
The highest finishing open car from each of the Duels and the fastest two open cars in single-car qualifying will gain entry to the main race. Rows 2-19 are set by the results of the Duels. The first duel’s entries will fill the inside row and the second’s will fill the outside. The final row will be formed by the last two open cars to enter on speed.
The 2024 Daytona 500 schedule, entry list and broadcast
Post the qualifying sessions, teams will have practice runs on Friday and Saturday in preparation for the main race. The final event will begin at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. The lineup for the 2024 grid includes the names of seven past winners.
Denny Hamlin will enter the venue as the winningest Daytona 500 driver (2016,2019 and 2020) on the current grid. Should two-time winner Jimmie Johnson qualify, he will be running to equal Hamlin’s number by the end of the race. Additionally, drivers such as Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Austin Cindric each have one Daytona 500 win.
Fox Sports will broadcast the Daytona 500 week in the United States beginning Wednesday. The main race telecast will begin with the pre-race coverage on FS1 at 11 a.m. ET on February 18. Every session of the week, including the single-car qualifying and the Duels will be cast live on FS1.
