On-track action at Daytona International Speedway is scheduled to get underway with practice and qualifying this Wednesday, followed by the two America 250 Florida Duel qualifying races on Thursday evening to set the full 41-car starting lineup for Sunday's 68th running of the Daytona 500.
The entry list for the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval is expected to see a total of 45 cars.
With 36 chartered cars, plus the No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota of Jimmie Johnson, due to its Open Exemption Provisional, locked into the race, there are expected to be eight non-chartered (open) cars battling for the final four spots in the field, ultimately leaving four on the outside looking in.
However, two of those eight cars have yet to be formally announced.
Chandler Smith is set to drive the No. 36 Ford for Front Row Motorsports, Justin Allgaier is set to drive the No. 40 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, Anthony Alfredo is set to drive the No. 62 Chevrolet for Beard Motorsports, Casey Mears is set to drive the No. 66 Ford for Garage 66 Ford, Corey Heim is set to drive the No. 67 Toyota for 23XI Racing, and Corey LaJoie is set to drive the No. 99 Ford for RFK Racing.
The two expected entries are the No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet. J.J. Yeley is expected to drive the former, while team co-owner B.J. McLeod is expected to drive the latter.
NY Racing Team haven't successfully qualified for the "Great American Race" since the late Greg Biffle got them into the show back in 2022. Yeley himself has failed to qualify in back-to-back years, and he's actually 0-for-4 dating back to 2020. He hasn't made a Daytona 500 start since 2015.
As for Live Fast Motorsports, they have never qualified since selling their charter after the 2023 season. McLeod tried and failed to get into the race in both 2024 and 2025.
Fox Sports 1 is set to provide live coverage of Wednesday's and Thursday's on-track activity, while Fox is set to provide live coverage of the Daytona 500 itself beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, Febraury 15. Start a free trial of FuboTV today if you have not yet had the chance to do so, and be sure to catch all of the action from the "World Center of Racing"!