The Aspect of Daytona 500 No One in NASCAR Likes

Every other motorsport usually places a proper practice session ahead of qualifying and the races. But this does not seem to be something that the top bosses at NASCAR truly understand. With the release of the 2024 Daytona 500 schedule, the first thing that the Cup cars will be doing is heading out for the single-car qualifiers. Thereafter, they’ll go through the two stages of qualifying.

It is only after the qualifying sessions are finished are when the two practice sessions will take place. This is going to be the second consecutive year that NASCAR has thought of coming up with such a schedule. All this while, drivers and teams have constantly urged NASCAR to get the practice sessions back to their original format.

Updated tentative weekend schedule grid for 2024. Tentative Daytona schedule same as last year with no Cup practice before single-car qualifying Wednesday night (first on-track activity is that Daytona 500 pole qualifying) with cars then impounded for the duels on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/CFb0YoRazN

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) January 2, 2024

It’s not just the general NASCAR community that wants practice sessions to take place ahead of qualifying but even the fans agree that the existing schedule is just wrong.

I feel like it should be illegal to not have practice prior to qualifying for your biggest race of the year

— Jeremy Lukaszka (@JeremyLukaszka) January 2, 2024

Considering the allure of the Daytona 500 the way NASCAR currently handles it by eliminating practice sessions ahead of qualifying is utterly shambolic for a race this prestigious.

Why does NASCAR want the Daytona 500 practice to be this way?

Practice sessions were first removed during the COVID-19 global pandemic. It made sense for NASCAR to cancel it on the grounds of cost-cutting and to minimize the risk of exposure. They also looked at the data and believed that racing without practice allowed the teams and drivers to provide more entertaining racing.

However, the removal of practice from the Daytona 500 ahead of qualifying sessions is something fairly new, considering last year was the first time when they did it. Whatever, maybe their justification behind the matter, not giving teams to run the cars and test out their setups ahead of their qualifying runs isn’t something that should be the norm.