Daytona 500: NASCAR ejects crewmembers, sends two more cars to rear of field after prerace

Two cars — the No. 47 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and the No. 88 of Shane van Gisbergen — failed Daytona 500 prerace tech twice, per Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports.

As a result, both drivers will drop to the rear of the field and have a crew member ejected. Van Gisbergen, who already was going to the rear, has lost his car chief. Stenhouse, meanwhile, is without his engineer. That brings the total number of drivers starting from the rear of the field to nine.

• No. 5 Kyle Larson
• No. 48 Alex Bowman
• No. 99 Daniel Suárez
• No. 88 Shane van Gisbergen
• No. 7 Justin Haley
• No. 6 Brad Keselowski
• No. 35 Riley Herbst
• No. 54 Ty Gibbs
• No. 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Van Gisbergen is making his Daytona 500 debut as he enters his first full-time season in the Cup Series with Trackhouse Racing. Stenhouse, the 2023 Daytona 500 champion, is hoping for the same result this time out.

Daytona 500 weather: Updated forecast threatens NASCAR race despite start time change

NASCAR is doing everything it can to get the Great American Race in on Sunday, moving up the starting time from 3 p.m. ET to 2 p.m. But per the latest forecast from The Weather Channel, rain still could play a factor.

The Weather Channel is predicting a 98% chance of rain and heavy thunderstorms hitting the Daytona area around 3 p.m., just an hour after the current projected start time. And it’s only expected to get worse from there, with an 100% chance of rain and thunderstorms by 4 p.m.

Should there be any sort of delay, the chance of rain drops considerably to 20% around 6 p.m., and continues to drop throughout the evening. How the forecast will impact the Daytona 500 is yet to be seen, but it’s clear it’s going to be a wet one regardless.