Today brings the inaugural Cup race to the Daytona International Speedway Highway (3 pm ET on NBC).
Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin will start on the front row. But given the chaos that can be expected in the first round for a race track if there was no practice or qualification, who will be able to claim to lead the first round?
The first round lead of inaugural cup match on a new track is a big deal.
For the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994, Dale Earnhardt pushed the issue so hard that he lost his no. Chevrolet caused to hit the outside wall starting from Turn 4.
He has not led the first round yet. That honor went to pole-sitter Rick Mast.
Among the information available for the 24 active Cup tracks (excluding Richmond Raceway), only four times the driver leading the first round of an inaugural race did not start in the first place. This happened in 1950 in Darlington, 1961 at Bristol Motor Speedway, 1969 at Michigan International Speedway and 2011 at Kentucky Speedway.
Three drivers have run the first lap more than once: Dale Jarrett (Texas Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway), Kurt Busch (the last two inaugural races at Kentucky and the Charlotte Roval) and Fireball Roberts (Atlanta and Charlotte).
Here is a look back at all the inaugural cup matches on each active track and the drivers leading the first round in each event.
Charlotte Roval, 2018: Kurt Busch (first started)
Kentucky Speedway, 2011: Kurt Busch (third started)
Kansas Speedway, 2001: Jason Leffler (first started)
Chicagoland Speedway, 2001: Todd Bodine (first started)
Homestead-Miami Speedway, 1999: David Green (first started)
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 1998: Dale Jarrett (first started)
Auto Club Speedway, 1997: Joe Nemechek (first started)
Texas Motor Speedway, 1997: Dale Jarrett (first started)
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 1994: Rick Mast (first started)
New Hampshire Motor Speedway, 1993: Mark Martin (first started)
Sonoma Raceway, 1989: Rusty Wallace (first started)
Phoenix Raceway, 1988: Geoffrey Bodine (first started)
Pocono Raceway, 1974: Buddy Baker (first started)
Dover International Speedway, 1969: David Pearson (first started)
Michigan International Speedway, 1969: LeeRoy Yarbrough (second started)
Talladega Superspeedway, 1969: Bobby Isaac (first started)
Bristol Motor Speedway, 1961: Junior Johnson (second started)
Charlotte Motor Speedway, 1960: Fireball Roberts (first started)
Atlanta Motor Speedway, 1960: Fireball Roberts (first started)
Daytona International Speedway, 1959: Bob Welborn (first started)
Watkins Glen International, 1957: Buck Baker (started first, leading each round)
Richmond Raceway, 1953: Due to poor registration the info is not available.
Darlington Raceway, 1950: Gober Sosebee (third started)
Martinsville Speedway, 1949: Curtis Turner (first started)
