NASCAR News: NFL to schedule Super Bowl against Daytona 500 (Update)

The Daytona 500, arguably the biggest race of the NASCAR Cup Series season, has been held on the same President’s weekend Sunday afternoon for years, but that may soon all change.

But is the legendary NASCAR race in jeopardy of losing its annual time slot?

The Super Bowl could be pushed back a week, moving to President’s Day Weekend. The game would be played on a Sunday night, likely conflicting with the Daytona 500, which many think probably wouldn’t want to compete with the NFL for viewers.

If No Rain

If the Daytona 500 hits no rain for a 1:00pm start, then FOX can gain a lot of TV viewers for the 500 from people channel surfing for Super Bowl pre-game coverage. The race could even be moved up to a Noon start (for years it started at 12:15pm) and it would be over in plenty of time before the Super Bowl would begin. Both e race and the SUper Bowl would gain TV viewers

If it rains in Daytona

If it were to be raining in Daytona in the afternoon, there is no way the race could be pushed back to the evening against the Super Bowl despite Daytona having lights, and the race would have to be rescheduled for Monday, which is a day off from work for many people anyway.

Moving the race up a week seems like the logical conclusion, though perhaps NASCAR will want to be bold and try to compete with the NFL.

It seems like it’s only a matter of time before the NFL goes to an 18-game season and moves the Super Bowl back a week.

The NFL is close to approving and expansion of their schedule to 18 games. Commissioner Roger Goodell is reportedly in favor of the idea, which would push the Super Bowl back to the traditional Daytona 500 weekend.

An expansion of the NFL schedule to 18 games would push the Super Bowl back to the third Sunday in February, which would place it on Presidents’ Day weekend, and it would dominate the news all weekend.

Of course, the Daytona 500 has almost always been held on President’s Weekend.

NFL Commissioner Goodell specifically referenced the fact that the Super Bowl’s new date would be Presidents’ Day weekend since many fans would be off from work the next day, meaning the remainder of the NFL schedule would be centered around that date.

We doubt NASCAR would want the Daytona 500 to go head-to-head with the king of all sports, the Super Bowl.

This would likely force NASCAR to move the Daytona 500 off it traditional date Presidents’ Day weekend, with Monday being a holiday, so fans can use that day to travel back home.