Daytona 500 Postponed: What Are You Reading Instead?

Getty Images The 2024 Daytona 500 is postponed due to rain.

Storms won this stage. Rains and the threat of more led NASCAR to postpone the 2024 Daytona 500 to Monday, February 19. Saturday’s Xfinity, also postponed, is now scheduled to run at 11 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, and will be televised on FS1.

The 66th Daytona 500 race will start at 4 p.m. Eastern on Monday, and be broadcast on Fox.

With this Sunday now open, what are you reading?

NASCAR Reading List & NASCAR Fan Fiction

The International Motorsports Hall of Fame, located just a bump from the Talladega Superspeedway, publishes a “NASCAR Reading List.” It’s a short list, but hard to argue the selections.  It includes “The Intimidator,” about Dale Earnhardt. A book on the many cars Richard Petty drove in his career. A biography on Dale Earnhardt, Jr, and a couple more.

On Reddit, fans debate their favorite NASCAR books. It’s a fun and varied list, ranging from driver biographies, the moonshine-infused early days of NASCAR, Detroit’s role in the sport, the money side of NASCAR, and more.

But if ‘real’ is not how you’re looking to spend a Sunday when the Daytona 500 is cancelled, there are a surprising number of NASCAR romance books. For example, “Speed Dating” has over 200 reviews.

“One minute I’m locked out of my hotel room, and the next…Dylan Hargreave thinks I’m an actress paid to pose as his girlfriend at a North Carolina society wedding. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of Dylan Hargreave. Celebrity NASCAR driver? People magazine’s Sexiest Man of the Year? Those eyes. That smile… Forget sensible! I’ve assessed the risk…and I’m taking it! I usually keep the brakes on, but as of now I’m taking a vacation.”

If NASCAR romance novels are not for you, a perennial favorite is “The Physics of NASCAR: The Science Behind the Speed.” It’s a good primer, though it was written in 2009. “If you’ve ever wondered why racecars don’t have mufflers, how “bump drafting” works, or what in the world “Let’s go up a pound on the right rear and add half a round of wedge” means, The Physics of NASCAR is for you.”

What Formula 1 Can Teach NASCAR

The recent Netflix docuseries NASCAR: Full Speed likely would not have been greenlit if not for the popularity of the Netflix Formula 1-based series, Drive to Survive. Drive to Survive has helped the European-based Formula 1 (F1) grow its footprint in America, and brought in new — and younger — fans to the sport.

But “Drive to Survive” was just one pillar in F1’s plan to grow its fanbase in America, and appeal to a different demographic. A new book about F1 may offer NASCAR a blueprint for growing viewership outside of America — and appealing to a different demographic.

Out next month is “The Formula,” by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg. The authors look at how F1 was able to take on NASCAR on its home turf — America. “For decades in America, car racing meant NASCAR, and to a lesser extent IndyCar, with Formula 1—the wealthiest racing league in the world—a distant third.

Fast forward to 2023, and F1 has emerged at the front of the pack powered by a passionate yet nascent American fanbase. The F1 juggernaut has arrived, but this checkered flag was far from inevitable.”