NASCAR has officially taken the preemptive measure of moving up the start time for Sunday afternoon's 2025 Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway as a result of a subpar weather forecast.
The 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval had been scheduled to go green at 3:11 p.m. ET, with live coverage set to begin at 2:30 p.m. ET on Fox.
Now Fox's live coverage is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. ET (pre-race coverage at 11:30 a.m. ET), and the green flag is scheduled to fly at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Though this does give NASCAR an extra 71 minutes of wiggle room, the schedule alteration doesn't necessarily mean the race will take place as planned on Sunday afternoon, and if recent history is any indicator, perhaps this won't be the only schedule change that takes place this weekend.
Daytona 500 at risk of postponement?
Five years ago, the 2020 Daytona 500 was started on Sunday, but it had to be stopped due to bad weather. It was not resumed until late Monday afteronon, and it did not finish until Monday evening.
The 2021 Daytona 500 got only a few laps underway on Sunday afternoon before it was also stopped. This race was able to be resumed the same day, but not until late in the evening. As a result, it did not end until the wee hours of Monday morning.
In 2022 and 2023, the races were both run as scheduled. But in 2024, the race was completely postponed from Sunday to Monday. Surprisingly, this was only the second ever full postponement in the 66-year history of the "Great American Race"; the first happened in 2012.
Daytona 500 weather forecast
And this is the update that NASCAR fans won't want to see: the forecast has not improved for Sunday's race.
The Weather Channel is now predicting a 60% chance of rain, while AccuWeather is still calling for an 88% chance of a thunderstorm, even going as far as noting that "a delay or postponement of the race due to rain cannot be ruled out".
The good news is that there is no more than a 4% chance of rain expected for Monday or Tuesday (though that is subject to change, of course, considering the fact that we are talking about Florida).
So if part of the race (or the whole race) does end up being pushed back, it shouldn't be pushed back by more than a day.
Tune in to Fox at 1:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, February 16 for the live broadcast of the 67th annual Daytona 500 from Daytona International Speedway. Take advantage of FuboTV's free trial offer and catch all of the action from the "World Center of Racing"!