NASCAR’s Annual Prelude Race to Return to Daytona Oval in 2027
The NASCAR Clash will return to a familiar place in 2027, as it will move back to the Daytona oval as part of NASCAR Speedweeks. The 2027 running will also have a new title sponsor with Wheatly Vodka. Interestingly, the race will take place on February 13th, 2027, a Saturday, most likely due to the Super Bowl taking place on February 14th. Decade-long NASCAR fans will be very happy to see the Clash return to the superspeedway, the place where the race was held from 1979 to 2020.
Since the pandemic, the Clash has moved to a few different locations. In 2021, the race was held at the Daytona Road Course during their surge to add new road courses. Kyle Busch won the race after Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney crashed while battling for the lead. It moved to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the next three years to welcome in the Next Gen car. For the past two seasons, the race has taken place at Bowman-Gray Stadium, the prestigious late model short track in Salem, North Carolina. The races from 2022 to 2026 proved that the wide Next Gen cars could barely run next to each other due to how narrow the track was.
The return to Daytona is the next in the list of returning tracks for certain races in the NASCAR Cup Series. This was kicked off when the Cup Series returned to Chicagoland in July, the first running of a race at that track since 2019. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returned to Rockingham Raceway this April as well. The fall race at Charlotte Motor Speedway will return to the oval configuration instead of the Roval, ending an eight-year run. NASCAR has been slowly reverting to a schedule similar to the early 2010s.
The format for the Clash has not been revealed. Over the past few years, the Clash has had heat races to determine a 23-car field. It is very unlikely that Daytona will have heat races, as heat races are a staple of short tracks, late model, and modified racing. The most likely format they will use is only a short, 60 or 70-lap race featuring the previous season’s Chase and pole winners, but that is not yet confirmed. It will be very interesting to see how the Daytona oval return will affect viewership. Additionally, drivers will be able to adjust more easily for Speedweeks without needing two different car setups, which could improve the performance and entertainment of all of the Cup Series races at Daytona.
