Weather has been the story leading up to the 68th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, just as it has been in the majority of recent years.
Going back to 2020, there have been just two Daytona 500s that were not impacted by rain, and those took place in 2022 and 2023. The 2020 race was started and stopped on Sunday before it was pushed back to Monday due to rain, and the 2021 race was started and stopped on Sunday before it was resumed Sunday night, but it didn't finish until early Monday morning.
The 2024 race was postponed from Sunday to Monday entirely, and the 2025 race was started and stopped on Sunday before resuming, and being completed, later on Sunday.
For those who have been following along, the weather forecasts on both The Weather Channel and AccuWeather have been getting progressively worse throughout the week, in the buildup to Sunday's 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval.
Daytona 500 weather update gives NASCAR fans hope
But the latest update has given fans a glimmer of hope, perhaps to the extent that we'd almost be remiss not to warn you not to get too caught up on potential false hope.
The Weather Channel is now calling for just a 24% chance of precipitation throughout the day on Sunday, with sunny skies predicted throughout the afternoon.
However, AccuWeather remains more pessimistic, calling for an afternoon thunderstorm and specifically noting the possibility that it "can delay or postpone the race".
And even Weather Channel is calling for an evening thunderstorm, which could very well impact the race's latter stages if the event is not completed in time. Could the race end up being shortened?
As always, we can't neglect to mention that the weather forecast for Daytona Beach is always subject to change (and usually does), so with two days to go until the race is actually scheduled to be run, don't be surprised to see a completely different prediction (or predictions) at some point before the weekend ends.
As of now, plan on tuning in to Fox at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 15 for the live broadcast of the 68th running of the "Great American Race". Start a free trial of FuboTV today if you have not already done so and be sure to catch all of the action from the "World Center of Racing"!