24 Hours of Daytona: NASCAR star admits fog delay 'most miserable hours' in a race car

NASCAR star admits Daytona fog delay 'most miserable hours' in a race car

24 Hours of Daytona News Sunday, January 25, 2026 at 1:30 PM ET •By Simmey Hannifin Donaldson

If you thought the 24 Hours of Daytona was a long race that would test drivers to the absolute limits of their patience, just wait until you find out that six and a half hours of it were spent under caution.

That's right. More than 25% of the race has been spent cruising around behind the pace car, setting a new record for the longest caution period ever at the event.

NASCAR star Connor Zilisch had some of the worst of it, too, forced to drive for four hours under yellow, from the start of his stint to the end.

Zilisch on Daytona fog delay

Speaking after he finally got out of the car, the NASCAR star was quizzed on whether or not it was difficult driving in those conditions for so long, or just boring, and he was emphatic in his response.

“It’s just boring. Absolutely boring,” Zilisch explained. “Not much else to say about it.

“It was probably some of the most miserable hours I've ever had inside of a race car. But I tried to sing to myself and tried to make it as enjoyable as possible.

“But yeah, it was not fun. I had my watch on my wrist, and I’d look down, and I’d be like, ‘Man, 30 minutes have to have passed’, and six minutes passed. I was like, ‘Man, this is gonna be a long four hours’.

“But yeah, we had to do what we had to do. I couldn’t see anything. I’d come out of the turn, NASCAR turn four banking and I couldn’t even see the ‘World Center of Racing’ on the frontstraight.

“It was pretty crazy. We were pretty blind out there so yeah, glad it all cleared up and we could get back to racing.”

Thankfully, the race eventually went green after a total of six hours and 33 minutes at 7:19am ET this morning.

The black and white checkered flag will fly at 1:40pm ET.