NASCAR’s Sacred Daytona 500 Tradition Under Jeopardy After America’s Big Dog Drops Major Revamp Bomb

As the 2024 NASCAR season enters the second leg of the calendar, all signs are pointing toward a resurgence in NASCAR’s numbers. Only recently, the Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway toppled the NHL playoff games in viewership numbers. But as momentum builds for America’s favorite motorsport with the help of the Netflix: Full Speed docuseries, one of America’s greatest sporting events could potentially spoil the President’s Day tradition of the Daytona 500.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell recently revealed some exciting news for Super Bowl fans, which unfortunately could come at the cost of the NASCAR community.

The risk of losing the tradition as the NFL hints at a major shakeup

Ever since the prestigious Daytona 500 first started near the sunny beach, NASCAR fans have come to expect the President’s Day weekend to be exclusively reserved for the Great American Race. After all, out of all the Daytona 500s in the last 66 years, only 15 have not been run on the three-day holiday weekend. That being said, the NFL’s latest update on future plans could make that number 16.

Speaking to the famed insider Pat McAfee, the NFL commissioner shared his wishes to move the Super Bowl to the President’s Day weekend to accommodate an additional regular-season game shortly. Revealing Goodell’s grand plans to the NASCAR community, veteran insider Dustin Long shared on X, “48 of the last 54 years, the Daytona 500 has been held on Presidents Day weekend. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is interested in moving the Super Bowl to that weekend. The Daytona 500 may have to run on a different date in the future.”

But after so many decades of the Daytona 500 holding claims over the President’s Day weekend, what prompts the NFL to hint at such a drastic change?

During his appearance on the Pat McAfee show, the NFL commissioner was fairly vocal about his distaste for the off-season. Instead, Goodell’s plans involved expanding the regular-season games and increasing the action-packed NFL calendar to 18 games from 17. That being said, there was another major factor about shifting the Super Bowl that the commissioner marketed to fans present at the McAfee Show. He was quoted by NBCSports, “That ends up on Presidents Day weekend, which is a three-day weekend, which makes (it) Sunday night, and then you have Monday off,”

Although Goodell’s comments were met with hurrahs all across the McAfee studio, the NASCAR community could be the ultimate loser in all of this. After all, it isn’t the first time that the NFL has hinted at a move that could strengthen NASCAR.

Will NASCAR bow down to the NFL’s wishes once again?

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Currently, Goodell’s comments are merely speculation and prospective ideas for the future. Before any such changes can be implemented, the NFL must seek approval from the NFL Players’s Association, which, according to Dustin Long, is unlikely to happen until the next labor deal is signed in 2030. However, it is worth mentioning that the only time NASCAR did not run the Daytona 500 on President’s Day weekend in recent memory was also influenced by the NFL’s decision-making.

From 2012 to 2017, the Daytona 500 broke its streak of over 54 years of running on President’s Day weekend. Although there were many reasons, according to Dustin Long, one stood out like a sore thumb in the current context of Goodell’s comments.

The veteran quoted NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell’s comments from 2011 about the major change in the following five years. He stated, “We’re not going to deny the fact that part of this also is in dealing with the NFL. Who knows where they’ll go with an 18-game schedule, but we want to get ahead of that. Either way, we think it’s the right thing to do for our season. The Super Bowl is certainly a big event, but so is the Daytona 500, and to allow fans to go to both of those is certainly the right move.”

After accounting for the NFL commissioner’s recent revelation, NASCAR’s history of shifting dates to make room for the Super Bowl could end up working against the NASCAR community, which is always looking forward to the three-day weekend tradition.