{"id":458697,"date":"2026-02-07T00:57:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/458697\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T00:57:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:57:41","slug":"nascar-announces-massive-rule-change-ahead-of-daytona-500-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/458697\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR announces massive rule change ahead of Daytona 500 qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Daytona 500 is only nine days away, and NASCAR<\/a> is making some enormous changes. On Friday, NASCAR announced that a driver cannot use their hands to alter airflow inside their car during a Qualifying attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs determined by NASCAR, once a vehicle exits pit road during a Qualifying attempt, the driver\u2019s hands may not be used to redirect air in any manner including but not limited to, touching the window net, blocking air from entering the cockpit, redirecting air from the window, etc. Noncompliance will result in loss of Qualifying time,\u201d the change read, per Bob Pockrass.<\/a><\/p>\n

This change is intended to limit the factors affecting a driver\u2019s time outside of their car performance and skill. With an open window on a race car, a driver can position his hand to affect the aerodynamics of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

While this strategy may only affect a driver\u2019s time by hundredths of a second, it can be the difference in a driver\u2019s pole position on race day. This change isn\u2019t the only one that NASCAR announced this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe top two open cars in single-car qualifying are locked in, and they aren\u2019t racing for the spot allotted to the top open car in each duel,\u201d Pockrass wrote.<\/a> \u201c\u2026 The remainder of the open cars race for the one spot available in each duel.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, NASCAR will hold single-car qualifying for the race. Then, NASCAR will have two duels for the Daytona 500 the following day. Thus far, 37 drivers have qualified for the Daytona. Those are the 36 drivers of teams that have charters, and\u00a0Jimmie Johnson, who will drive an open car.<\/p>\n

Johnson was guaranteed a spot<\/a>\u00a0in the field by using the open exemption provisional, which is available to an \u201celite driver in motorsports who doesn\u2019t race full-time,\u201d per Pockrass. In total, eight open entries will compete for four spots in the race.<\/p>\n

The following drivers will compete for a spot in the Daytona:\u00a0Anthony Alfredo, Justin Allgaier, Corey Heim, Corey LaJoie, B.J. McLeod, Casey Mears, Chandler Smith, and\u00a0JJ Yeley. The four spots are determined in the two duels and qualifying.<\/p>\n

The Daytona 500 is NASCAR\u2019s biggest race, and it officially kicks off the 2026 season. The winner of the race will not only be remembered for being a Daytona 500 champion, but they will have an early lead in the battle for the Cup Series championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Daytona 500 is only nine days away, and NASCAR is making some enormous changes. On Friday, NASCAR…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-458697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}