Daytona 500: NASCAR Cup Series cars hit Speedway for 1st practice
Cars on the track! The NASCAR Cup Series rides hit Daytona International Speedway for their first Daytona 500 practice Wednesday morning.
- Joey Logano shows up at Daytona sporting a new aero package.
- Another NASCAR driver says he’ll be next to grab the clippers.
DAYTONA BEACH — Each year at this time, some cars arrive at Daytona sporting different sponsors and therefore new color schemes. Same with haulers, team uniforms and anything else associated with the various racing organizations.
Rarely, however, do the stars of the show arrive with a noticeably different look than they had at the end of the previous season.
Geoff Bodine showed up at Daytona one year with a beard, another year with a small diamond stud in his ear lobe. And he may or may not have shown up with Tanya Tucker at some point.
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Twenty years ago, Kurt Busch arrived for the Daytona 500 with his ears pinned back — and not figuratively. He had offseason surgery to tuck his ears a bit closer to his head.
And now we have Joey Logano, who’s gone full John Travolta on us and embraced the razor for something other than his facial stubble.
“I gave my son the clippers and said, ‘Have at it,’” Logano said of his biggest offseason move.
Yes, Joey Logano is OK. He’s just bald
Turns out, there was a little more involved than just a whim.
“I have alopecia and I randomly get these spots where the hair won’t grow,” Logano explained during Wednesday’s media day festivities at Daytona. “I had another flare-up and just said, shoot, let’s shave it off.
“I’d thought about it, then I had another flare-up and said, this is the easiest thing to do.”
And that was that, until pictures appeared on social media.
“I started getting a lot of messages from people asking if I was OK,” he laughed.
The head is clean, but he is sporting a small, fresh beard.
“My wife said I still need to do that, and I said, ‘whatever you want.’”
Two chairs, no waiting. Next up: Chase Briscoe
It might not be long before Logano has company in the Lack of Hair Club for Men. Chase Briscoe, follicly challenged and admittedly so, says don’t be surprised to see him show up some random week missing the “few hundred hairs I have.”
“I might do it during the offseason. I might show up one week this summer with it all cut off, but it’s going to happen at some point, I can assure you,” Briscoe said Wednesday.
As Briscoe started winning and contending for wins more often last year, the TV cameras started finding him more often at his most vulnerable — during the national anthem, when drivers are standing alongside their cars and hatless.
“I have social media in an uproar normally every single week because TV shows me during the national anthem and people roast me for how bad my hair is — or lack of hair,” he said.
When is 2026 Daytona 500?
- Date: Sunday, Feb. 15
- Start time: 2:30 p.m. ET
- TV channel: Fox
- Streaming: Fubo (free trial)
National Weather Service forecast for Daytona 500, Speedweek
Thursday: A 20% chance of showers after 1 p.m. Patchy fog before 9 a.m. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 68. North wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday night: A 20% chance of showers before 1 a.m. Patchy fog after 3 a.m. Otherwise, partly cloudy, with a low around 54. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Friday: A 30% chance of showers, mainly after 1 p.m. Patchy fog before 9 a.m. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 70. North northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday night: A 20% chance of showers before 1 a.m. Partly cloudy, with a low around 55. East northeast wind around 5 mph.
Saturday: A 20% chance of showers after 1 p.m. Mostly sunny, with a high near 72. East wind 5 to 10 mph.
Saturday night: A 20% chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 59. East southeast wind around 5 mph becoming south after midnight.
Sunday: Showers likely, mainly after 1 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. South wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Sunday night: Showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 1 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 58. West southwest wind around 10 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Monday: A 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. West northwest wind around 10 mph becoming north in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.
