What’s Happening?

The Daytona 500 weekend was swamped up in a rainstorm for most of the weekend. This caused races to get postponed, and celebrity appearances at the Daytona 500 to be cancelled. Here is a look at the fallout from the bad weather at Daytona over the past weekend.

• Daytona has been notorious for weather difficulties, with 7 Cup Series races since 2014 impacted by weather (Most in the Series). However, this weekend has been exceptionally difficult when it comes to the weather.
• The season-opening Exhibition race, the Clash at the LA Coliseum, was also heavily impacted by weather. Forecasted heavy rain on Sunday forced the race
• The fans have been immensely disappointed at the bad weather for the weekend. It has put a damper on the opening of the 2024 NASCAR season.

The Weekend Schedule Changes

The most obvious way the weekend has been impacted is by the races being moved or postponed. The first victim was the ARCA Menards Series Sioux Chief Fast Track 200, which was moved from Saturday afternoon to Friday night, after the Craftsman Truck Series race. Gus Dean took home the win.

Then the Xfinity Series race fell victim on Saturday. While NASCAR found a window to get qualifying in, the race was not so lucky. Rain started falling on Saturday afternoon, and it kept raining, and raining, and raining. The race was moved to Monday at 11 AM ET, then to 9 PM ET after more rain came on Monday.

As for the Cup Series race, that rainstorm pelted the track all day on Sunday. There was no chance the rain would let up, so, the race was postponed to Monday at 4 PM ET.

Celebrities and Pre-Race Festivities

Celebrities Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, DJ Khaled, and Pitbull were all scheduled to be in attendance on Sunday. Now that the Daytona 500 is on Monday, how does it impact their schedule?

Pitbull was supposed to perform in a pre-race concert before the 500, and he will NOT return on Monday. However, he did say that he would return for the 2025 race, so, the prerace concert is going to be Pitbull for the 2025 Daytona 500.

DJ Khaled was named the honorary starter for the race, but, he will not return on Monday. However, his presence in the media center was felt on Sunday.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is slated to be the Grand Marshall for the race. He will stay for the Daytona 500 on Monday, and he also made the trip to the media center to talk to reporters. Even if the other star power is gone, Johnson will stay.

The 2024 regular season opening weekend has been quite chaotic, and the weather has made a major impact. Thankfully, it seems everything will happen on Monday afternoon into Monday night,