Daytona 500 update? NASCAR returns practice session to Speedweek
- You’re now allowed to tune up for the biggest stock-car race in North America.
- After ditching practice sessions for a year (or two, or three, who remembers?), NASCAR has added a short(ish) practice session to Daytona’s season-opening Speedweek.
- NASCAR released a new process for qualifying in 2025, and along with it they dropped in a 50-minute practice session prior to qualifying for the Great American Race.
You’re now allowed to tune up for the biggest stock-car race in North America.
After ditching practice sessions for a year (or two, or three, who remembers?), NASCAR has added a short(ish) practice session to Daytona’s season-opening Speedweek.
That’s right, SpeedWEEK. It’s just five days in the new NASCAR.
NASCAR released a new process for qualifying in 2025, and along with it they dropped in a 50-minute practice session prior to qualifying for the Great American Race.
The new Daytona 500 week runs from Wednesday to Sunday. That first day is reserved solely for pole qualifying for the 500. Someone in recent years decided no practice session was necessary, and it’s probably not, since teams can learn all they need to know through wind tunnels and simulators.
But not EVERYTHING they need to know. There’s a lot to learn where the proverbial rubber meets the equally proverbial road.
So while pole qualifying for the Daytona 500 is slated to start at 8:15 Wednesday night, Feb. 12, there will be a shakedown session that morning, starting at 10:05.
