Would NASCAR Chase Daytona summer race back to Fourth of July?

It’s not a dumb question.

Don’t believe me? Listen to this guy …

“It’s a good question.”

Or maybe this guy …

“I wouldn’t say it would never be thought of, or discussed, or maybe even done …”

Ryan Blaney held off a whole slew of Cinderellas to win last year’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona.

The question at hand: Since NASCAR’s new championship format has done away the automatic playoff entry for a race winner, and since that certain lack of dramatics has been eliminated from the regular-season finale … ahem … any thought of moving Daytona’s summertime race back to its early-July roots?

The first answer, above, came from NASCAR higher-up Ben Kennedy, whose fingerprints can be found on most (or all) scheduling moves in recent years. The second from Frank Kelleher, president of Daytona International Speedway, a man with tickets to sell — more on that shortly.

The question became relevant soon after the dust cleared on NASCAR’s recent announcement on the latest overhauling of its playoff system, which now isn’t technically a playoff system at all, but a “Chase” for the championship, a former term which itself was dusted off.

Daytona has short August history with NASCAR’s Coke Zero Sugar 400

Daytona’s “other race” was moved to late August in 2020. A major part of the new hype centered on a potential playoff berth dangling from the checkered flag.

Well, they’ve killed Cinderella. And while that might ruin a storybook, a lot of people were in favor of the sacrifice. No longer does the longest of longshots make the postseason field by falling into a win, particularly in one of the free-for-alls at Daytona, Talladega or Atlanta, where the modern version of restrictor plates equalizes the field.

How equalized? Just think back to 2025’s regular-season ender at Daytona. Ryan Blaney won, by less than a tenth of a second, but look who finished second through fifth: Daniel Suarez, Justin Haley, Cole Custer and Erik Jones — maybe not total Cinderellas, but if the officially licensed, Nomex-lined boots fit …

“With it being later on in the year, even if a driver wins, they’re not locking themselves into the Chase, per se,” Kennedy says. “It still creates a lot of excitement and drama as you close out the regular season, and you set your field for the Chase.”

Now, in August at Daytona, it’ll be all about the bubble, instead of partially about the bubble. With the top 16 points-gatherers advancing to the Chase and a potential championship, all eyes will focus around positions 14 through 18 in the standings, give or take.

Also, while a win doesn’t lock in a Chase spot, it can go a long way under a new system that rewards a race winner with 55 points, up from 40.

And since stage-racin’ survived the recent changes, there’s additional stage points to be had — a max of 20 if a driver sweeps the first two stages and then wins. By my math, that’s a potential of 75 points, which is a good little haul, however unlikely at a slice-and-dice race like Daytona.

Austin Dillon, with his son Ace and Speedway president Frank Kelleher in 2022, used a summertime Daytona win to earn a playoff spot that he wouldn’t earn again under the new format.

“A lot can change in that final race,” Kelleher says. “Points are still at a premium. From that standpoint, the regular-season finale still has weight, still has merit. The race is definitely gonna have a lot of value.”

Speaking of value …

“When I look at the data of consumer tickets we sell, corporate tickets that we sell, we are selling more around our August event than we did the last handful of years it was in July,” Kelleher adds.

So there you have it, more or less, though not entirely.

Pope Gregory has a say in modern NASCAR scheduling. You heard me

“I think more likely than not, it’ll continue to remain where it’s at,” Kennedy says of the long-ago Firecracker, which in modern times answers to Coke Zero Sugar 400. “It’ll still either be an end-of-regular-season race or close to the end of the regular season.”

That’s right, he said close. In 2024, Daytona was moved a week earlier and Darlington got the 26th race due to NBC’s Olympics coverage forcing a revamp on the schedule makers. Also, with the Daytona 500 and start of the season moving a week later in 2027 (and possibly beyond), something will eventually have to give — either Darlington’s Labor Day tradition or Daytona’s current spot on the August schedule.

“There’s a number of other variables,” Kennedy says. “Our goal would be for it to continue to be at the end of the regular season, but we know it’s not gonna be the case every year. I’d love it if there was a way, but unfortunately there isn’t.”

Turns out, some 500 years ago, Pope Gregory chiseled his namesake calendar in stone. Or at least hired out.

— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR, Daytona and the Firecracker 400 return? Not a bad question

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