NASCAR's Mike Forde responds to question of complacency surrounding Daytona 500, promotion

The biggest race on the NASCAR calendar has long been the Daytona 500. But as the calendar soon flips to 2026, is the opening race of the season starting to lose its prestige?

It’s something Dale Earnhardt Jr. touched on last month on an episode of the “Dale Jr. Download.” Mike Forde, NASCAR’s managing director of racing communications, said Monday that from a promotion standpoint, the sanctioning body is doing its part. However, the overall buildup is something that can be improved upon, he said.

“What I think and what NASCAR thinks might not totally be in sync, although I do think they feel this way as well is that I don’t think any less promotion has gone around it,” Forde said on the Door Bumper Clear podcast. “We have production days in January where we push it. We go up to New York City for a media tour. We have the Driver Ambassador Program where now we give drivers points and eventually, financial gain to promote the sport and go out there and use their time to talk about NASCAR. We’re using that in January and in early February it’s going to be nonstop. What I do believe is that moving The Clash, while I think it’s awesome at Bowman Gray, I think it was awesome at L.A., having NASCAR activity start two Thursdays before the actual 500 was awesome and really was super important.

“Now, because everything got condensed and the good and bad of COVID is we’ve learned efficiencies, and some would argue that we kind of over indexed to the efficiency side versus the buildup side. I would be one of those who argues that too. … I think there is the condensed nature of it now for financials [and] efficiencies has made it less of a grandiose event. Hopefully somewhere along the line we can do something about that, but I don’t know if there’s any plans just now.”

Is something wrong with the Daytona 500?

The Daytona 500 remains one of four Crown Jewels in NASCAR, along with the Coca-Cola 600, the Brickyard 400, and the Southern 500. Part of the issue might be with the on-track product at Daytona.

Modern superspeedway races have become a game of fuel conservation. We often see an entire pack running half throttle where passing is limited. It’s typically not until the very end of the race do drivers go on offense and run full throttle.

Following this year’s Daytona 500, Denny Hamlin called on NASCAR to fix superspeedway racing. He took issue with much of that race being spent with drivers two and three-wide saving fuel. Earnhardt expressed concern for the Daytona 500 moving forward.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Daytona 500 has ‘fallen from that perch’

“I love Daytona, I also love Talladega, I had a lot of success at both of those racetracks,” Earnhardt said. “The racing there over the last several years has taken a beating from critics, myself included, and drivers would even argue, is the Daytona 500 still the most important race of the year? Yes, everyone wants to win the Daytona 500, but is it the most important race? It’s fallen from that perch, and that is a problem for me.

“The Daytona 500, for all of my life, has been compared to the Super Bowl of the NFL. It has always been this very important event that everybody did everything they could to try to find a way to win it once. It would even be compared to a championship to some drivers like myself. Would you trade a Daytona 500 for a championship? That was a legitimate question you might get. Nobody is asking those questions now because everyone would say they want that championship. The Daytona 500 and its solidified spot as the most importance race is no longer the case.”