The 52nd annual Daytona 500 began at 1:00 pm ET, Feb. 14, 2010. After receiving countless numbers of requests for an earlier race, the officials from the Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR, and FOX Sports had agreed to the earlier start time.
The 53rd annual Daytona 500 will be presented on Feb. 20, 2011.
The 200 lap, 500 mile race has been in existence since 1959, and was won by Lee Petty, patriarch of the famous racing family. The first televised coverage of the race was in 1979, which gave the race the legitimacy of being a great national sport.http://www.ticketcity.com/nascar-tickets/daytona-500-tickets/daytona-500-history.html The Daytona 500 is the most watched Nascar race of the season, and is consistently a sold out event. In 2010, the race was moved back to an earlier start time, at 1:00 pm. Ironically, the 2010 race was the took the longest time of in Daytona-500 history. It took 6 1/2 hours to complete the race so the race still went into the evening hours. The race was finally won by Jamie McMurray. McMurray led the race for only two laps in its entirety, but they were the final two laps, giving him the victory. http://www.mahalo.com/daytona-500-2010
References
Fast Facts
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Event
53nd Daytona 500
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When
Feb. 20, 2011
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Fact:
Daytona is the first race of the NASCAR season
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Nicknames
"The Great American Race"
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Start time
1:00 p.m. ET
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Gates Open
8:00 a.m. ET
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Fact:
Event covered by FOX Sports
