With impending weather threatening the forecast at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday and Sunday, ARCA Menards Series officials have made the decision to bump up its 200-mile season-opening event to Friday at 10:30 PM ET.
Television coverage of the event will begin on FS2, and after the FS1 College Basketball game concludes, the ARCA race will move to FS1.
Fans, who purchased tickets to Saturday’s race, will be granted entrance into Daytona International Speedway for Friday’s double-header ARCA/NASCAR Truck races with their tickets.
The previous plan was for the ARCA race to go along as scheduled for Saturday at 1:30 PM ET, and if weather impacted the ability to run the race, the Hard Rock Bet 200 would move to Monday morning at 9 AM ET. However, the possibility of rain washing out the NASCAR Xfinity Series United Rentals 300 on Saturday and the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 on Sunday, led to the potential of a three-race logjam on Monday.
Ultimately, that possibility was too much to overcome.
Instead, the ARCA Menards Series drivers and teams will battle it out under the lights on Friday night following the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.
Qualifying for the ARCA Menards Series Daytona 200 will still take place as scheduled on Friday at 1:30 PM ET. 50 cars are on the entry list, and 10 cars will be eliminated from the field after Friday’s qualifying session.
