The 69th Daytona 500 is scheduled for Sunday 21 February 2027 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The race is the season-opening event of the NASCAR Cup Series and the most prestigious stock car race in the world, known as The Great American Race. The 2027 edition is notable for moving off its traditional Presidents’ Day weekend slot to avoid a calendar clash with Super Bowl LXI on 14 February, giving Daytona a clean week of motorsport attention.
What is the Daytona 500?
The Daytona 500 is a 500-mile NASCAR Cup Series race around Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5-mile high-banked tri-oval. It is the opening round of the NASCAR Cup Series season and is regarded as the Super Bowl of stock car racing, offering the largest purse, most prestige and biggest television audience of any race on the calendar. Winners automatically qualify for the Cup Series playoffs, and victory is widely considered a career-defining achievement for any NASCAR driver.
The race covers 200 laps of the superspeedway, with drivers reaching speeds of around 200mph in drafting packs thanks to the restrictor-plate configuration used at Daytona and Talladega. The closing laps routinely produce multi-car drafting battles, last-corner passes and major crashes as drivers fight for position at the front of the field.
When is the Daytona 500 2027?
The Daytona 500 takes place on Sunday 21 February 2027, one week after the traditional Presidents’ Day weekend slot, to avoid a clash with Super Bowl LXI. The green flag traditionally drops at approximately 2:30pm Eastern Time, with the full race day including pre-race celebrations, driver introductions, invocations and the national anthem. Speedweeks, the annual build-up programme, starts in the week before the race with the Clash exhibition, the Duel qualifying races, the ARCA Menards Series season opener and the NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
Where is the Daytona 500 2027?
Daytona International Speedway is in Daytona Beach, Florida, on the Atlantic coast approximately an hour’s drive northeast of Orlando. The 2.5-mile high-banked superspeedway was built in 1959 by Bill France Sr and features 31-degree banked turns, one of the steepest track configurations in NASCAR. The speedway was extensively redeveloped between 2013 and 2016 under the Daytona Rising project, which added new grandstands, fan concourses, club areas and a capacity of around 101,500 seats. It is one of the largest sports venues in the United States.
Key Contenders
The Daytona 500 is notoriously unpredictable, with drafting, pack racing and late-race crashes meaning that almost any driver in the field can win on their day. Recent winners include William Byron (2025 and 2024), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2023), Austin Cindric (2022), Michael McDowell (2021) and Denny Hamlin (2016, 2019 and 2020). Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski are also among the leading names who contend each year.
Teams from Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske, 23XI Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Trackhouse Racing provide the bulk of the front-running field. The defending champion enters the 2027 race seeking to become only the third driver in history to win back-to-back Daytona 500s, a feat last achieved by Denny Hamlin in 2019 and 2020.
How to Watch
In the United States, the Daytona 500 is broadcast live on Fox, the first year of NASCAR’s new media rights deal that also includes NBC, Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports. Spanish-language coverage is available on Fox Deportes, with radio coverage provided by the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. In the United Kingdom, the race is broadcast on Premier Sports. In Canada, TSN holds NASCAR rights, and in Australia the race is carried by Fox Sports and Kayo Sports. Sky Sports F1 and DAZN cover NASCAR across various European markets.
History and Records
The first Daytona 500 was held on 22 February 1959 and was won by Lee Petty by a photo-finish margin over Johnny Beauchamp, with the result not confirmed for three days. Richard Petty holds the record for most Daytona 500 wins with seven, followed by Cale Yarborough on four. Denny Hamlin is the only driver in the modern era to win three Daytona 500s (2016, 2019 and 2020). Dale Earnhardt won the race only once, in 1998, after 20 years of near-misses, in one of the sport’s most celebrated moments. The 2001 edition is remembered for Dale Earnhardt’s fatal last-lap crash, one of the most significant moments in NASCAR history.
Tickets and Attendance
Tickets for the Daytona 500 are sold through Daytona International Speedway’s official ticket office and are available in categories ranging from trackside standing-room tickets to premium grandstand seats and hospitality areas. Standard grandstand prices typically start around 120 US dollars and rise to several hundred for front-stretch seating. Hospitality packages in the UNOH Fanzone, turn club areas and infield motorhome lots offer premium experiences, with camping passes available for the full Speedweeks programme.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the Daytona 500 2027 start?
Sunday 21 February 2027, with the green flag scheduled for approximately 2:30pm Eastern Time.
Where is the Daytona 500 being held?
Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
How can I watch the Daytona 500?
On Fox in the United States, Premier Sports in the United Kingdom and Fox Sports in Australia.
Who won the last Daytona 500?
William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports, who won the Daytona 500 in both 2024 and 2025.