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Chevrolet electric Blazer SS to serve as Daytona 500 pace car

JHby: Jonathan Howard02/10/25Jondean25

While Chevrolet won’t have official Camaros on the track, the Daytona 500 will feature the all-new 2025 Blazer EV SS as the pace car. That might make some NASCAR fans feel a certain way, but don’t worry, this is just a pace car.

This year, Chevrolet will have to get creative about promoting its current line of consumer vehicles. It appears they found one way to get the word out without having a current model technically advertised as a Cup or Xfinity car this year.

Chevy NASCAR race cars this year are simply labeled as Chevrolet this season. As production has ended on the Camaro, the body style remains the same. What the future holds for the bowties as far as the next iteration of the car is still unknown.

This blue and black Blazer EV SS looks great. As long as the pace car driver makes it to pit road without incident, I’m sure it will be a great pace car for the Daytona 500 as Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports reports this morning.

Many NASCAR fans feel negative towards electric vehicles. They don’t want EVs replacing their beloved V8 engines, and that makes sense. In recent years NASCAR has worked with ABB to produce an EV race car prototype. David Ragan has served as the test driver in those efforts.

The Daytona 500 is all about the roar of the engines, the smell of burning rubber and fuel, and all of those sensory details. Feeling the rumble of the cars approaching down the track and then shaking the stands as they fly by. Electric vehicles don’t produce that same feeling.

Now, all of this is just talk and conjecture. This is a Daytona 500 pace car and not a race car.

Daytona 500 will have healthy field of open cars

With nine open entries at the Daytona 500 this year, there will be lots of excitement throughout the week. Qualifying and the Duels this year are going to be must-watch TV. Four to five teams stand to lose out on making the field and going home early.

I say four to five because the rules are a bit different this year. There are 36 chartered entries that will make the field no matter what. Then there are four open spots for the nine entries. That means five cars go home, right? Well, no.

Helio Castroneves and Trackhouse Racing have the new Open Exemption Provisional for this race. As an outstanding driver from an outside series, the four-time Indy 500 winner has been given a backup plan. Should he fail to qualify traditionally into the 40 car field, he will be given an extra 41st starting spot.

Should Castroneves use the provisional for the Daytona 500, he will not earn prize money or points. Also, he doesn’t take a spot from another open driver. If that ends up being the case, four teams will miss the field in total.