As of 10:40 AM Monday February 27 the tentative start time is 7 PM Monday tonight with Tuesday as a last option. If not, race will be re-scheduled for a later date.
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| NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars are covered on pit road as they await the start of the 54th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images for NASCAR |
Q. Can you talk about coming in on the backside, some of the points you went over before coming to this decision, and are you reasonably certain that the race will go at 7:00? If not, what's plan B? Is it Tuesday? Is it a day in April?
MIKE HELTON: Yeah, the biggest thing I want to ask is the collaboration of a lot of different groups, from weather experts to FOX to Joie and the group at Daytona International Speedway to our own group, competition guys and operation guys and everybody collaboratively working nonstop since we knew we were going to have an issue yesterday to make the absolute best decision we could, understanding that any decision we make is not going to be universally accepted by everybody because when it rains, it just complicates things to an extreme that you can't correct.
But we do want to make the best decision possible, and we did that with a lot of people's input, a lot of effort and a lot of thought process going into the community, public service groups that have to support the event, the ticket buyers who invested in their money and time to be here to see the Daytona 500 as part of Speedweeks, and the fans who were at home expecting to sit and watch the Daytona 500.
So we've had a mesh of all of those stakeholders in the decision making process, but also a mesh of all the stakeholders in making the decision to come to the one we did today. And in today's world, with the ability to communicate, we felt like that instead of sitting here and waiting all day long with the information that we had that presented not a very favorable forecast between now and later this afternoon, I couldn't sit here and guarantee you we'll start at 7:00, but our confidence of starting at 7:00 this afternoon is a whole lot better than it is at noon, which is why we made the plan.
Q. Is there a Plan B if it doesn't go?
MIKE HELTON: Tuesday is an option. We're focused on today and this afternoon right now, but just so everyone knows, Tuesday is an option before we'd have to reconsider packing up and leaving. But tomorrow is an option.
Q. I'm assuming this is a situation where you guys look at it and say we want enough of a window to get the entire race in, that it's not a situation where we want to get it started and get it halfway. And also, with a 7:00 start, is there a drop dead date or time as far as if it's raining then but we can get on the track at 7:30, we're not going to call it at 7:00? If we can't start exactly at 7:00 we're not going to give up at that point?
MIKE HELTON: You're right, it is a function of the entirety of the event, essentially not started yet. Our effort is to run the entire 500 miles, and that's the decision that we'd make initially that includes the entire 500-mile distance.
And the flexibility throughout yesterday still exists today. We're targeting 7:00 because we feel like it's realistic. If it takes a little bit longer to get ready to go, I think everybody is willing to do that to accomplish the conclusion of the Daytona 500 within a reasonable amount of time. So 7:00 is not a drop dead critical moment. It's just the time that we felt like it gave us our best shot right now. But we could go a little bit later if it's necessary.
Past Rain Delays
1963
First 10 laps run under yellow due to rain.
1965
Rain-shortened -- 133 laps (332.5 miles).
1966
Rain-shortened -- 198 laps (495 miles).
1979
First 16 laps run under yellow due to rain.
1992
Laps 84-89 run under yellow due to rain on backstretch.
1995
Red flag on lap 71 due to rain. Red flag lasted 1:44.
2003
Two red flags for rain. 1st: lap 63; 1:08. Rain-shortened -- 109 laps (272.5 miles).
2009
Rain-shortened -- 152 laps (380 miles).
2012
Race postponed from 2/26 to 2/27 because of rain.
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