NASCAR Moves Times, Dates on Schedule

By ESPN

The Daytona 500 start time is moving later in 2017, and the weekend of the race is moving earlier in 2018.

NASCAR has moved the 2017 Daytona 500 one hour later, to a 2 p.m. ET listed start time, one of 11 Cup races it will start later in 2017 in hopes of finishing closer to prime time Sunday nights.

Thirteen of the 36 points races will start in the 3 o'clock hour, and 12 races will start in the 2 o'clock hour in 2017. Only three races will start in the 1 o'clock hour in 2017, compared with 12 in 2016.

While it is starting races later, NASCAR will start its season a week earlier beginning in 2018. The Daytona 500, which was moved from the Sunday before Presidents Day to the Sunday after Presidents Day starting in 2012, will move back to Presidents Day weekend starting in 2018.

A NASCAR spokesman said the move of the Daytona 500 date for 2018 was more about tradition and that it is likely to remain on Presidents Day weekend in future seasons.

If NASCAR didn't move the Daytona 500 to Feb. 18, 2018, it would have had only one off-weekend that year. The move to a week later in 2012 was done in part because the NFL was discussing an 18-game schedule instead of its current 16 games, potentially putting the Super Bowl on that Presidents Day weekend.

NASCAR also announced Wednesday that during the NBC portion of the schedule, three races will move from NBCSN to network telecasts on NBC (Indianapolis, Bristol and Talladega), swapping with three races moving from NBC to cable on NBCSN (Darlington, Charlotte, Kansas).

In past years, NASCAR had waited until late January or early February to announce start times.