Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500 is the 68th running of NASCAR\u2019s most prestigious race, known as \u201cThe Great American Race.\u201d It serves as the season-opening event for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series. AJ Allmendinger and Ty Dillon each seek their first Daytona 500 victory and first for their Kaulig Racing organization.<\/p>\n
Date: Sunday
\nLocation: Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida (a 2.5-mile superspeedway with high banking)
\nStart time: 2:30 p.m. ET (coverage begins on Fox, with the green flag likely dropping closer to 3 p.m.)
\nRace details: 200 laps \/ 500 miles
\nRadio: Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
\nThis year’s event is part of Speedweeks, beginning Wednesday with daily on-track action leading up to the main race.
\nPre-race entertainment features a concert by three-time GRAMMY-winning country music superstar Miranda Lambert.<\/p>\n
2026 FOX NASCAR DAYTONA SPEEDWEEKS SCHEDULE<\/p>\n
Bold is Live Event<\/p>\n
Tuesday, Feb. 10<\/p>\n
RAM’s RACE FOR THE SEAT (6:00-7:00 PM ET, FS1)<\/p>\n
Wednesday, Feb. 11<\/p>\n
NASCAR Cup Series practice (10:00-11:00 AM ET, FS1)
\nNASCAR Cup Series Pole Qualifying (8:00-10:00 PM ET, FS1)<\/p>\n
Thursday, Feb. 12<\/p>\n
FIRST THINGS FIRST (3:00-5:00 PM ET, FS1) (live from Daytona)
\nNASCAR Craftsman Truck Series practice (5:00-6:00 PM ET, FS1)
\nNASCAR RACEDAY: DUEL AT DAYTONA (6:00-7:00 PM ET, FS1)
\nDuel at Daytona (7:00-10:00 PM ET, FS1)
\nWE\u2019VE LOST DALE EARNHARDT (10:00-11:00 PM ET, FS1)<\/p>\n
Friday, Feb. 13<\/p>\n
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series qualifying (3:00-4:30 PM ET, FS1)
\nFIRST THINGS FIRST (4:30-5:30 PM ET, FS1) (live from Daytona)
\nNASCAR Cup Series practice (5:30-6:30 PM ET, FS1)
\nRAM’s RACE FOR THE SEAT series finale (6:30-7:30 PM ET, FS1)
\nNASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race (7:30-10:00 PM ET, FS1)<\/p>\n
Saturday, Feb. 14<\/p>\n
ARCA Menards Series race (12:00-2:30 PM ET, FOX)
\nNASCAR Cup Series final practice (3:00-4:00 PM ET, FS1)<\/p>\n
Sunday, Feb. 15<\/p>\n
NASCAR RACEDAY (12:30-2:30 PM ET, FOX)
\nTOTAL SPORTS 360 ESPECIAL (2:00-2:30 PM ET) (FOX Deportes)
\nDAYTONA 500 (2:30-6:30 PM ET, FOX & FOX Deportes)<\/p>\n
Veteran Returns: AJ Allmendinger begins his 18th full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday. It marks his fifth season with Kaulig Racing’s NASCAR Cup Series program.
\n13th Daytona 500: Allmendinger marks his 13th Daytona 500 start on Sunday. He finished 13th in the 2025 Great American Race.
\nBest Daytona 500 Finish: Allmendinger’s best Daytona 500 finish is third (twice) in 2009 and 2017.
\nCareer: Allmendinger is a three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner and owns 22 top-five, 87 top-10 finishes in the division. This year he will make his 500th NASCAR Cup Series start at Sonoma Raceway. He is an 18-time winner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
\nCrew chief: Trent Owens joined Kaulig Racing in January 2022. The Darlington, S.C., native became Allmendinger’s NASCAR Cup Series crew chief in 2025. Owens has 20 years of experience in NASCAR and has won in all three of NASCAR’s top series in a crew chief role.
\nKaulig Racing: The Matt Kaulig team owns two NASCAR Cup Series victories and 27 NASCAR Xfinity Series victories.<\/p>\n
AJ Allmendinger:<\/p>\n
On the Daytona 500: \u201cSuperspeedway racing is some of the most exciting, but some of the most nerve-wracking racing out there. We\u2019re happy to have CELSIUS back for the biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500. I know we all say that a lot, but there\u2019s so much that builds up to it with all the hard work the team puts in during the off-season. Driving into Daytona still gives me chills. All the pre-race ceremonies and standing by the car\u2014to this day\u2014it\u2019s emotional. It\u2019s truly an honor and a privilege to be part of the Daytona 500.\u201d<\/p>\n
Navigating luck and executing: \u201cWe know we\u2019ll always have fast cars at the superspeedways, and we know we\u2019ll be competitive. The race is tough, and there\u2019s a lot of luck that plays into it, but if we do the right things, we know we\u2019ll have a shot at winning. It\u2019s just special to be part of it all\u2014the Duels, qualifying, practice, everything. It\u2019s a massive build-up to Sunday. It\u2019s one of the biggest events in the world when it comes to motorsports, and I\u2019m very fortunate to still be a part of it. I would love to go to Daytona, put on a show, and celebrate with the men and women of Kaulig Racing and CELSIUS in Victory Lane.\u201d<\/p>\n
CELSIUS is a premium, functional energy drink brand born in fitness and built for active lifestyles. Powered by its LIVE. FIT. GO.\u2122 mantra, CELSIUS delivers refreshing, zero-sugar energy designed to keep people moving \u2014 from elite athletes to everyday achievers. CELSIUS\u00ae is owned by Celsius Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CELH).<\/p>\n
Ty Dillon Back for Year Two at Kaulig Racing: For the second consecutive year, the 33-year-old Dillon will drive the No. 10 for Kaulig Racing. He will pair with long-time Kaulig Racing driver AJ Allmendinger, who will drive the team’s No. 16 NASCAR Cup Series entry.
\n10th Daytona 500: Dillon makes his 10th Daytona 500 start on Sunday. His best Daytona 500 finish is sixth in the 2019 race.
\nCareer: Dillon owns a career-best third-place finish at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in the Fall 2020 race. He’s won three NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races (Atlanta in 2012 and Kentucky and Texas Speedways in 2013) and a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014.
\nCrew Chief: Andrew Dickeson, 43, a native of Melbourne, Australia, joined Kaulig before the 2025 season after years of working in Australian racing and as an engineer at Richard Childress Racing.
\n2025 NASCAR In-Season Challenge: Dillon authored one of the greatest “Cinderella” stories in NASCAR’s history last year. He entered the 32-driver bracket as the lowest possible seed (No. 32) and went on a miraculous run, defeating Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, and John Hunter Nemechek before losing to Ty Gibbs in the championship round, falling just short of the $1 million prize. On social media throughout the competition, Dillon jokingly called out the fans of the stars he defeated, posting: “I beat your favorite driver.”<\/p>\n
\ufeffTy Dillon:<\/p>\n
On Winning a Daytona 500: \u201cThe Daytona 500 to me is the most important race we have. It kicks off our year and is the equivalent of our Super Bowl, with 200-300,000 fans watching us and millions more on television. When you win that race, it changes your life forever as a driver. Getting out of the car, knowing you had just won the Daytona 500, for me, it would be nothing but a flood of emotions thinking back on all the hard work, so many years of trying, knowing how important the victory is to your career, it would be an incredibly emotional moment for me. My family has experienced that thrill. My grandfather (Richard Childress) did so as a car owner, and my brother (Austin Dillon) did so as a driver. I can\u2019t imagine the elation I would have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ufeffOn Kaulig Racing: \u201cI don\u2019t think Kaulig Racing gets the recognition it deserves. You saw last year that we came in as an underdog, the 32nd seed in the In-Season Tournament, and we made it to the final race and finished second. It was huge for us, and we look forward to doing more things like that this year, starting with the Daytona 500.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaulig Racing PR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500 is the 68th running of NASCAR\u2019s most prestigious race, known as \u201cThe Great American Race.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[1701,49,48,718,925,374,77,720,634,721,722,82,723],"class_list":["post-464919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-1701","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-craftsman-truck-series","tag-daytona","tag-fox","tag-international","tag-motor","tag-nascar","tag-series","tag-speedway","tag-sports","tag-xfinity-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464919","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=464919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}