Of the 42 teams entered, only the 36 chartered teams are locked into the event.
The six ‘open’ teams will battle for the four remaining spots on the grid. They are all part-time efforts and made up of the following drivers: Jimmie Johnson in the No. 84, BJ McLeod in the No. 78, Anthony Alfredo in the No. 62, David Ragan in the No. 60, Kaz Grala in the No. 36 and a yet to be announced driver in the No. 44.
How does qualifying work?
On Tuesday, a random draw takes place to decide the order cars will take to the track for Wednesday’s qualifying session.
Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is a single-car, one-lap format. Each driver gets one flying lap around the 2.5-mile superspeedway and the two fastest cars will be locked into the front row for Sunday’s Daytona 500.
The two fastest drivers will also start from pole position in their respective Duel races on Thursday. The lineup for the twin 150-mile Duel races will be based on Wednesday’s qualifying results. All drivers who qualified in odd-numbered positions will be placed in Duel #1 while all even-numbered qualifiers compete in Duel #2.
The two highest-qualifying open entries are locked into the 500 on Wednesday. The highest-finishing open driver in each Duel race will take the final two positions in the Daytona 500. Should the highest-finisher be one of the open drivers who locked themselves into the race already, then the next-fastest driver from qualifying is locked in.
Alex Bowman is the defending pole-sitter with Hendrick Motorsports locking out the front row in 2023. A non-Chevrolet has not won the pole for the Daytona 500 since Ford did it with Carl Edwards in 2012.
2024 Daytona 500 entry list