The NASCAR Daytona 500 Is Switching dates Thanks To The NFL And Pope Gregory XIII
Daytona International Speedway announced today that the 2027 Daytona 500 will be held a week later than its usual slot the Sunday before Presidents’ Day, a week after Super Bowl Sunday.
That’s because ever since the NFL added a 17th game in 2021, the Super Bowl has been held on the second Sunday of February.
In 2027, February starts on a Monday, which pushes the second Sunday to the 14th, and NASCAR knows that even the “Super Bowl of Racing” can’t compete.
It’s easy to blame the NFL for encroaching on NASCAR’s season with that extra game, but the conflict really dates back to 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII adopted the current calendar format, which is known as the Gregorian Calendar.
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Unfortunately for the lucky NASCAR fans who normally get to sleep in the day after the Daytona 500, the scheduling conflict continues until 2032. On the bright side, the 2026 race is still scheduled for February 15.
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The pre-season kicks off on Feb. 1 with the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem for the second year in a row, before the series heads south to Florida for the start of the regular season.
But while we know when the season starts, we still don’t know how it will end. The race dates are set, but NASCAR is still considering its options for the playoffs. It’s likely to update things so that the champion is decided over several races instead of just the finale, which will be held at Homstead-Miami in 2026.
There’s also the slim chance that it does away with the postseason altogether and goes back to a full-season championship, which Dale Earnhardt Jr. has suggested essentially makes the Daytona 500 a playoffs race.
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