NASCAR’s season-opening Clash is heading back to Daytona International Speedway on February 13, 2027. After a long time away from the 2.5-mile oval, the race will be back as part of Speedweeks, one week before the Daytona 500. Daytona president Frank Kelleher has been the public face of the announcement. But when one specific question came up during his SiriusXM NASCAR interview, his answer was quite measured.
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“I cannot confirm or deny what has gone into that,” Kelleher said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
The question was simple. Did the desire to collect data ahead of the 2027 Daytona 500 play a role in bringing the Clash back? Kelleher did not say yes. He did not say no. What he did was walk through a chain of events that made the question entirely reasonable.
He pointed to Talladega earlier this year, where testing at Daytona had become the talk of the garage. Ryan Blaney mentioned wanting to get back to Daytona for offseason testing after climbing out of his car. Then Kelleher connected it to what is coming next.
“The new package that is going to be on the track in just 25 days, I don’t think that’s a test per se, but I think it is changes to the competition to see how the cars react and behave here on the high banks,” he said. “I’m sure there will be findings and lessons from that, and who knows, maybe there will be some additional tweaks when we are back at Talladega, all in anticipation for cars on the track for the Clash.”
Persay, that is not a denial. That is a roadmap. On the surface, Kelleher framed the return simply. The Clash is meant to be an appetizer, not a standalone event.
“The intent is to treat it truly as an appetizer to the Great American Race,” he said. “Saturday night, underneath the lights, is going to be a special treat.”
The timing is significant. Super Bowl LXI is happening the next day, 14th February. NASCAR is placing itself at the center of the biggest sports weekend of the year, officially rebranding the event as the Wheatley Vodka Clash. The event slots in as the first step of Speedweeks, building through qualifying and the Thursday night Duels, all the way to the Daytona 500 on February 21.
The Clash did not leave Daytona by choice when it was there. Up until the onset of 2020, a number of problems had made themselves known.
The Super Bowl kept pushing later, eventually landing in direct conflict with Daytona’s traditional February dates. The race itself had become a demolition derby. In 2020, only six cars finished after a series of crashes cleared out most of the field. Team owners were furious about destroying cars before the regular season even started.
So NASCAR moved it. The LA Coliseum was an attempt to chase new fans. It worked for a while. Then the novelty ran out. Bowman Gray in North Carolina hit the winter weather, making logistics a nightmare. Florida in February does not have that problem.
Returning to Daytona solves the weather issue, satisfies fans who love the traditional side of the clash, and rebuilds Speedweeks as a structured buildup to the 500. Whether the data angle was always part of the plan, Kelleher will not say. But he came close enough.