Barring unforeseen circumstances, Chase Elliott will lead a pack across the start-finish line under green flag at Daytona International Speedway at about 1:31 p.m. (ET) Sunday for the start of the 2016 Daytona 500. Along with Elliott, 39 other drivers and their racing teams will try to start the year off right with a win at the sport’s biggest event.
Daytona 500 schedule 2016: Times, TV schedule, events and online streaming for Sunday
NASCAR’s biggest race and season opener will begin at roughly 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday on FOX.
You can watch the Daytona 500 on FOX: Prerace coverage begins at noon, nearly an hour and a half before the actual start. Fox Sports GO will have the online stream. The weather appears as if will cooperate as well, allowing for the race to start on time.
On the track, Elliott appears to be the head-of-the-class for this year’s rookies, and he’s got a great seat to do it from. The 20-year-old son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott takes over for Jeff Gordon driving Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 24 car this year. He took the pole during qualifying a week ago with a speed of 196.314, beating out Matt Kenseth. (Kenseth, however, will have to drop to the back after wrecking in the Cam-Am Duels on Thursday.)
Another Hendrick Motorsports driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and the No. 88 car will be another to watch throughout the day. Winner of the summer race at Daytona last year and with 10 restrictor-plate victories to his name -- third-most behind Gordon (12) and his father, Dale Earnhardt (11) -- Earnhardt Jr. made a late-race move during the first of the two Can-Am Duels to take home victory and earn a second-row starting spot in the grid.
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How to follow the Daytona 500
TV schedule
10:30 a.m. -- NASCAR Race Day -- Fox Sports 1
Noon -- Prerace coverage, FOX
1 p.m. -- Daytona 500 coverage, FOX
1:31 p.m. (approx.) -- Green flag
Streaming
Radio
Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM Satellite NASCAR Channel 90
Prerace Events
12:43 p.m. -- Driver introductions
1:11 p.m. -- Presentation of colors and invocation
1:12 p.m. -- National anthem, performed by 82nd Airborne Division All-American Chorus
1:13 p.m. -- Flyby by U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds
1:19 p.m. -- “Drivers, start your engines” command, by actor Gerald Butler
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