New Super Bowl Schedule May Force the Daytona 500 To Move Dates

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Joshua Lipowski

What’s Happening?

The start of NASCAR season and the Super Bowl have grown closer on the calendar in recent years, but, recent comments from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suggest that the Super Bowl could now directly conflict with the Daytona 500. In an interview with Pat McAfee, Goodell said he supports the NFL moving to an 18-game regular season, pushing the Super Bowl back to President’s Day weekend. That’s the same weekend the Daytona 500 has been held for the majority of its’ history.

"I think we're good at seventeen games right now but we're always looking at how we continue..

I'm not a fan of the preseason and I'd replace a preseason game with a regular season game any day" ~ @nflcommish #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/Tv8xdjkSXJ
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) April 26, 2024

The current NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL Players Association caps the regular season at 17 games with the Super Bowl in the 2nd weekend of February. That deal runs through 2030, but, the NFL is clearly trying to push the envelope early.
The move would likely cause NASCAR to move the Daytona 500 back one week, which has been done before. From 2012 until 2017, the Daytona 500 was held the weekend after President’s Day.
Fans are upset that NASCAR may have to adjust to the NFL, but, it’s the reality of the sports world. The Super Bowl is the biggest TV event in the country, and the NFL has the power, popularity, and leverage to move it to a more ideal weekend.