Regarded as the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar and carrying by far the largest purse, it is unusual in sport for being a marquee event at the start rather than the end of a season. From 1995 to 2020, its U.S. television ratings were the highest of any auto race of the year, surpassing the Indianapolis 500 — which in turn far exceeds the Daytona 500 in gate attendance and international viewership — until the Indianapolis 500 retook the ratings lead in 2021. As of 2026, the venue capacity is 102,000.
The race is the direct successor of shorter events on the Daytona Beach Road Course, partly on sand and partly on the highway near the beach. A 500-mile stock car race was first held at the new Daytona International Speedway in 1959 — the second 500-mile NASCAR race, after the Southern 500 — and by 1961 it was being called the Daytona 500.
The 2.5-mile speedway requires 200 laps for the full distance. The race was considered official after halfway (100 laps) from 1959 to 2016; from 2017 to 2019 after Stage 2 (120 laps); and from 2020 at either halfway or the end of Stage 2, whichever comes first. It has been shortened four times for rain (1965, 1966, 2003, 2009) and once for the 1974 energy crisis. Since the green–white–checkered finish rule arrived in 2004, the race has exceeded 500 miles on numerous occasions, with the 2023 running the longest at 212 laps / 530 miles. Since 1997 the winner has received the Harley J. Earl Trophy, and the winning car is displayed for a year at the Daytona 500 Experience adjacent to the speedway.
Lee Petty won the inaugural 1959 race, the 500 Mile NASCAR International Sweepstakes, on February 22, defeating Johnny Beauchamp. In 1960 Junior Johnson exploited the then little-understood draft to win in a slower, year-old car in a field of 68 — the largest in race history. Richard Petty became the first two-time winner in 1966, first three-time winner in 1971, and first four-time winner in 1973; he set a mark of five wins in 1974 by becoming the first driver to take consecutive Daytona 500s, and in 1981 became the first seven-time winner — the only driver to win in three different decades. A. J. Foyt lapped the entire field to win in 1972.
In 1976, Richard Petty was leading on the last lap when David Pearson passed him on the backstretch; contact off the final corner spun both into the infield grass short of the line, and Pearson limped his still-running car across to win. The 1979 race was the first Daytona 500 broadcast live flag-to-flag on national television, on CBS, with the audience swelled by an East Coast blizzard; that telecast introduced in-car and low track-side cameras. A final-lap crash between leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, followed by a fight that drew in Donnie's brother Bobby, brought national publicity to NASCAR while Richard Petty went on to win.
In 1988 restrictor plates were mandated to curb dangerously high speeds, after Bill Elliott had qualified on pole at an all-time Daytona record of 210.364 mph in 1987; that year also saw Bobby Allison win at age 51 — the oldest Daytona 500 winner — with son Davey second. Dale Earnhardt's long frustration at Daytona ran through near-misses in 1986, 1990, 1991, 1993 and a 1997 rollover before he finally won in 1998 after "20 years of trying."
The 2001 race, "Black Sunday," saw Michael Waltrip win his first Cup race in his 463rd start, overshadowed by the fatal final-lap crash of Dale Earnhardt Sr. in turn 4. In 2018, Austin Dillon — Richard Childress's grandson, running the #3 once driven by Earnhardt — won on the final lap, twenty years after Earnhardt's victory.
Stage racing arrived in 2017, and 2019 was the last year of traditional restrictor plates. Closest-finish records have repeatedly fallen: Denny Hamlin beat Martin Truex Jr. by 0.010 seconds in 2016. Multiple recent runnings were decided in NASCAR overtime, including a double-overtime 2023 won by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., his first Daytona 500 and third career Cup win, ahead of Joey Logano and Christopher Bell. The 2022 race, the first with the Generation 7 "Next-Gen" car, was won by Austin Cindric in only his eighth Cup start. Generation 6 bodywork had debuted in 2013, when Danica Patrick became the first woman on pole and the first to finish in the top 10. Tyler Reddick is the defending winner.
Weather and television have repeatedly reshaped the schedule: the 2012 race was postponed to a Monday night and finished after midnight Tuesday — the only Daytona 500 run as a night race — with Matt Kenseth winning, while the 2020 and 2024 runnings were also postponed by rain.
The Daytona 500's qualifying is unique. The front row is set by a timed round (held the Wednesday before the race since 2021), and the remainder of the field is set the Thursday before by two separate qualifying races, the "Duels." These were 100 miles from 1959 to 1967, 125 miles from 1969 to 2004, and 150 miles with two-lap overtime from 2005, with the duels not held in 1968 due to rain. Finishing order of the duels, owner-points standings, fastest non-qualified times, and a champion's provisional historically combined to fill the field, meaning some teams must race their way in.
The Daytona 500 was the first 500-mile auto race televised live flag-to-flag on network television, on CBS in 1979, which carried it through 2000. From 2001 to 2006 it alternated between Fox and NBC under a six-year, $2.48 billion contract, after which Fox became sole broadcaster from 2007, with the contract extended to give Fox every Daytona 500 from 2015 to 2024 — at least 20 consecutive runnings. Stadium lighting installed in 1998 and successive TV packages pushed start and finish times steadily later, with the 2007 race the first to reach prime time at 7:07 p.m. Eastern.
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