If you only dip into NASCAR a few times a year, this is the day that pulls you in. The Daytona 500 is a 500-mile NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway in Florida, long known as the Great American Race and the sport’s season-opening showcase.
Today, Sunday, February 15 2026, the 68th running of the Daytona 500 opens the new Cup season. The field is led to green by pole sitter Kyle Busch, with the start moved earlier because of rain in the forecast.
Start Time, Weather Risk, and How To Watch
NASCAR and track officials have already made a key call for fans and teams. Because of expected showers later in the day, the start time for the 2026 Daytona 500 was moved up by one hour. TV coverage on Fox now begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern, with the green flag expected at about 2:13 p.m. Eastern.
Forecasts from the National Weather Service show roughly a 50% chance of rain later this afternoon and higher odds in the evening. The goal is simple: start earlier, give the race enough daylight to reach the full 500 miles, and avoid the long delays that have hit several recent Daytona 500s.
For fans at home, that means an earlier window. The race airs on Fox, with radio coverage on Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM’s NASCAR channel. NASCAR also notes that the Daytona 500 is carried in more than 185 countries and territories in 23 languages, underscoring how much this one event carries the brand worldwide.
The Drivers Shaping Today’s NASCAR Headlines
Kyle Busch is finally on the pole at Daytona
Kyle Busch has done almost everything in stock car racing, but he has never won the Daytona 500. Today, he starts from the pole for the first time in this race after 20 previous attempts, sharing the front row with Chase Briscoe.
A win would end a long Daytona drought and turn the season opener into the story he has chased for years.
William Byron’s historic three-peat bid is under pressure
William Byron comes in as the two-time defending Daytona 500 winner. No driver has ever won this race three years in a row, so his attempt already carries history.
His path has not been smooth. A crash in his qualifying race forced him into a backup car and left him starting deep in the field in 39th.
Live race updates have also reported an early incident involving Byron, another reminder of how quickly a Daytona dream can change once the pack gets tight at 190 miles per hour.
Denny Hamlin is chasing a fourth 500 and battling pain
Denny Hamlin is already a three-time Daytona 500 winner. One more victory would tie him with Cale Yarborough for second on the all-time list and move him into even more elite company at this track.
He is doing it while managing a shoulder injury picked up before the season, but he has been clear that he plans to run the full Cup campaign despite the pain.
Jimmie Johnson’s future hangs over the grid
Seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson is back in the Daytona 500 field at age 50 and has already told reporters that the 2027 Daytona 500 will be his final Cup race.
He has two Daytona 500 wins, 83 Cup victories overall, and now splits his time between driving and building Legacy Motor Club as a team owner.
For long-time NASCAR fans, every lap he runs in this phase of his career feels like a bit of bonus time.
Defending Cup champion Kyle Larson and the numbers game
Kyle Larson arrives as the defending Cup Series champion after earning his second title with Hendrick Motorsports last fall.
Data firm Racing Insights, in a projection published by NASCAR, has Larson as the statistical favorite to win this year’s Daytona 500 based on recent performance and historical trends, even though plate racing is famously unpredictable.
Put simply, almost every major storyline in modern NASCAR is represented in this one race: a hungry star on pole, a defending winner chasing history, a legend nearing his sunset, and a reigning champion with the numbers on his side.
Why The 2026 NASCAR Season Starts Here In More Ways Than One
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top level of stock car racing in the United States and the main stage for the sport’s biggest sponsors, drivers, and teams.
For more than four decades, the Daytona 500 has opened that season, setting the tone before the series moves into a long run of races on short tracks, intermediate ovals, and road courses.
The business side matters too. Last year’s Daytona 500 marked the first event under a seven-year, $ 7.7 billion media rights deal that brought Fox, NBC, Amazon, and TNT Sports together in one package.
That agreement shapes how fans in the United States watch NASCAR today, from traditional TV to streaming apps and mobile alerts tied to live leaderboards.
So if you are a casual viewer wondering whether to spend your Sunday with this race, here is the simple truth. Daytona is where the biggest names in NASCAR take their first swing at a new year, where one yellow flag or one late push in the draft can flip the whole championship story before it even starts.
And if you only watch one stock car race this season, this is still the one that tells you the most about where the sport is headed next.
