NASCAR Cup Series

2024 Daytona 500 Qualifying: Expected entry list, how NASCAR's signature event sets its lineup

Updated Feb. 15, 2024 10:54 p.m. ET

The Daytona 500 field consists of 40 cars, with 36 spots reserved for drivers of teams that own charters, which is NASCAR’s version of a franchise. So there are only four spots available for drivers whose cars do not have a charter, commonly referred to as "open" cars.

2024 Daytona 500 Entry List

The 36 drivers who are expected on the entry list and automatically in with a charter are as follows:

There are currently five drivers who will vie for the four open spots:

Anthony Alfredo
B.J. McLeod
David Ragan
Jimmie Johnson
Kaz Grala
A sixth open car, fielded by NY Racing, has entered but no driver is listed.

Any open team wishing to enter the Feb. 18 race (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX) must do so by Wednesday, the first day the garage opens.

The first step — after getting through technical inspection — is single-car qualifying Wednesday night, where each driver does one lap, with the top 10 from those single-car runs advancing to a second round to determine their final order ahead of the rest. The single-car runs set the front row of the Daytona 500, as well as the lineups for the Daytona 500 qualifying races — "the duels" — on Thursday night.

Winning the pole Wednesday night was Joey Logano, while Michael McDowell clinched a front-row starting position.

The charter teams are evenly split among the two duels, as are the non-charter cars. The first duel has the first, third, fifth, etc., chartered cars and the first, third, etc., open cars from single-car qualifying. The second duel has second, fourth, sixth, etc. chartered cars and the same for open cars.

The highest-finishing open car in each duel makes the Daytona 500. The final two spots are the two remaining open drivers who were fastest in single-car qualifying.

In the duels Thursday night, Jimmie Johnson and Kaz Grala earned spots by being the highest-finishing open cars in their duel. Anthony Alfredo and David Ragan — the fastest of the open cars in qualifying Wednesday — took the final two spots based on those qualifying speeds. JJ Yeley and B.J. McLeod did not make the Daytona 500 field.

The starting order for the 500 is set this way:

The front row is the top-two cars from single-car qualifying.
Rows 2-19 are set by the duels, with the first duel filling the inside row by order of finish and the second duel filling the outside row by order of finish (taking into account that the top-two cars from single-car qualifying already are in the front row and any open driver who didn’t make the 500 field is excluded).
Row 20 consists of the last two open cars to make it on speed.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.