The Daytona 500 Has a New Date for 2027 NASCAR Cup Season

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The Daytona 500, which has traditionally been held on Presidents' Day weekend to kick off the NASCAR Cup Series season, will be held a week later in 2027. On Wednesday morning, Daytona International Speedway revealed the new race date for the Daytona 500 as Sunday, February 21, for The Great American Race in 2027.

The announcement was made via a video shared in a post on the official Daytona International Speedway social media channels.

Catch the tradition. 02.21.27.#DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/9nUlY2CYQT

— Daytona International Speedway (@DAYTONA) October 22, 2025

With the date change, Daytona International Speedway wanted to give its passionate fans ample notice prior to the 2027 season.

“We have fans from all 50 states and dozens of countries who look forward to kicking off the NASCAR season with us at The World Center of Racing, and we know many of them make their travel and lodging plans well in advance for the trip,” said Frank Kelleher, President of Daytona International Speedway, in a press release. “As the 2027 date shifts to Feb. 21, we wanted to give our amazing and loyal fans plenty of opportunity to prepare to be in Daytona Beach for the excitement The Great American Race provides each year.”

The move will help the Daytona 500 avoid a head-to-head conflict with the National Football League, as the NFL is set to contest the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 14 in 2027.

This won't be the first time that the Daytona 500 has shifted from its traditional Presidents' Day weekend date. With rumors of an extended NFL regular season, which would potentially shift the Super Bowl back a week, NASCAR took the proactive measure to move the Daytona 500 race date to the week after Presidents' Day weekend in 2011.

After a six year stretch with that race date, the Daytona 500 moved back to its traditional race date on Presidents' Day weekend.

The Daytona 500, which is known wide-and-large as NASCAR's Super Bowl, is the biggest race of the NASCAR Cup Series season, despite it serving as the first race of the season since 1982.

While the rest of the 2027 NASCAR Cup Series schedule likely won't be released until mid-to-late 2026, Wednesday morning's announcement by NASCAR and Daytona International Speedway allows us to see the starting point of the schedule.

The NASCAR schedules, which remained mostly stagnant for years, have seen sweeping changes from year-to-year over the last few seasons with NASCAR taking bold swings to return to iconic race tracks like North Wilkesboro Speedway, and, in the case of the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Rockingham Speedway.

Chicagoland Speedway, which first landed on the NASCAR National Series schedules in 2001, will return to the schedule in 2026 after a six-year hiatus.

While it'll be fun to speculate what tracks or street courses may or may not be on the 2027 schedule, it'll also be interesting to see if the shift from Presidents' Day weekend for the Daytona 500 impacts the traditional holiday weekends of some other marquee events in 2027 such as the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Memorial Day weekend and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Labor Day weekend.

William Byron, who went from ninth to first in a wild final lap in the 2025 Daytona 500, has won back-to-back Daytona 500s. In 2026, he'll look to become the first driver to ever score three wins in a row in The Great American Race.

The 2026 Daytona 500 remains on the traditional race weekend and will be run on Sunday, February 15, before the race shifts to February 21 in 2026.

Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Sterling Marlin, and Denny Hamlin are the only other drivers in NASCAR history to have back-to-back Daytona 500 wins.