Daytona 500 starting lineup, how to watch 2025 NASCAR Cup opener

The 67th running of the Daytona 500 will kickstart the 77th season of NASCAR Cup Series racing where Team Penske and Joey Logano will begin their title defense. The new season comes with plenty of changes across the grid and some new regulations for them to follow.

NASCAR decided against overhauling its playoff system, despite pushback following Joey Logano’s surprise title run with a 17.1 average finish. However, they did add a new wrinkle with the ‘Xfinity Fastest Lap,’ which will award a bonus point to the driver with the fastest lap during each race. This rule is in place for all three national divisions.

NASCAR also changed the way playoff waivers and the damaged vehicle policy will be handled going into the 2025 season. Playoff waivers can still be granted for non-medical reasons, but in these situations, the driver will have to forfeit all of their playoff bonus points during the regular season. This ‘punishment’ would be for situations where a driver misses a race due to a suspension or like last May when Kyle Larson missed the Coke 600 while competing in the rain-delayed Indy 500. As for the DVP, cars can now be towed back to the garage to repair damage and still return to the race. Previously, NASCAR was incredibly strict and if a car could not drive away on its own, it was out of the race — even if it was simply stuck due to flat tires. 

With the shuttering of Stewart-Haas Racing, one of its charters has gone to Trackhouse for the team’s third entry with Shane van Gisbergen, another to Front Row Motorsports for its third entry with Zane Smith, and another to 23XI Racing for its newly formed third entry with Riley Herbst. Gene Haas held on to the final charter, reorganizing as the Haas Factory Team and promoting Cole Custer back to the Cup level. All four SHR drivers found new homes in the Cup Series with Chase Briscoe joining Joe Gibbs Racing, Josh Berry taking over the iconic Wood Brothers entry, Noah Gragson moving over FRM, and Ryan Preece sliding into a newly formed third entry for RFK Racing (the team is leasing a third charter from Rick Ware Racing).

And these are just some of the changes to the grid for 2025! Looking forward, the largest entry list in a decade will head to the 2.5-mile superspeedway in Florida where William Byron is the defending Daytona 500 winner. Last year’s race ended with a dramatic three-wide move for the win by Ross Chastain, who stormed up the middle but instead of grasping victory, he found himself spinning through the infield grass.

Among the nine open entries are former Cup champions Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson, reigning Xfinity champion Justin Allgaier driving a JR Motorsports entry, and four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves in Trackhouse’s Project 91 machine.

When is the Daytona 500?  

• Date: Sunday February 16
• Time: 1:30pm ET [Start time moved up one hour due to threat of rain]
• Network: FOX Sports 
• Streaming: Max (onboard cameras)

Full Speedweeks schedule

How does qualifying work for the Daytona 500?

Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is unlike anything in motorsport, and it has no shortage of drama. It begins with a single-car, one-lap format. So, each driver gets one flying lap around the tri-oval and the two fastest cars will be locked in as the front-row starters for Sunday’s Daytona 500. The other qualifying times determine the starting grid for both Duel races, which decides the rest of the Daytona 500 lineup. The Duels are a pair of 60-lap qualifying races, covering 150 miles, and the results of the first race determine the inside row for the 500, while the second one decides Sunday’s outside row.  

But more importantly, the Duel races decide which of the nine open entries fill out the final few spots on the 40-car grid. The two fastest open entries in qualifying will be secured a spot while the top-finishing open entry in each of the two Duel races. Should the same driver(s) that topped the open field in qualifying top the open cars in their respective Duel races, then the third and if needed, the fourth fastest drivers from qualifying will fill out the field.

A new wrinkle this year is the Open Exemption Provisional, provided to a world-class driver attempting to make the race. The first driver to benefit from the OEP will be four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, who will take the 41st spot on the grid after crashing out of his Duel qualifying race. 

Front row starters, Austin Cindric, Team Penske Ford, Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

Where can I watch highlights of the Daytona 500?

Last year the NASCAR on FOX YouTube channel uploaded highlights soon after the Daytona 500 had ended, while doing the same for the sessions that preceded it that week.

The official NASCAR YouTube channel currently has a full replay of the 2024 Daytona 500, so follow the various NASCAR platforms to watch a highlights package – or the full race again – as soon as it drops. 

Watch: Race Rewind: Daytona 500 ends with a wild finish

Stories of the week

Denny Hamlin led the opening practice session, which preceded single-car qualifying on Wednesday evening. There, Chase Briscoe earned a shock pole in his first race as a Joe Gibbs Racing driver. JGR hasn’t earned pole in NASCAR’s season-opener since 1998 with Bobby Labonte, and it is the first Daytona 500 pole ever for the Toyota Racing camp. Briscoe beating Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, who will join him on the front row.

Additionally, former Cup champions Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson — who both drive Toyotas — locked themselves into the field as they beat all of open drivers. 

 Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric won the Duel qualifying races on Thursday, while Justin Allgaier (driving for JR Motorsports in their Cup debut) and Corey LaJoie raced their way into the show. There was some controversy at the end of the second Duel race as Erik Jones was ahead at the line, but NASCAR threw the caution seconds earlier due to a wreck in the back. This paved the way for Cindric to take victory after several minutes of confusion. The four drivers who failed to make the race were J.J. Yeley, Chandler Smith, Anthony Alfredo, and B.J. McLeod.

On Friday, NASCAR announced that the start time of the 500 was moved up a full hour due to the chance of rain showers in the afternoon. William Byron led drafting practice, which went incident-free. Parker Kligerman took a dramatic victory in the Truck race, but failed post-race tech inspection for being too low in the rear. Kligerman and team will appeal the penalty as Corey Heim was declared the race winner.

On Saturday, Brad Keselowski led the final practice session ahead of the 500. Jesse Love won the Xfinity race under yellow flag conditions as the field piled up behind him at the white flag. The Haas duo of Sam Mayer and Cole Custer finished second and third.

Photos from Saturday of Daytona 500