NASCAR postponed the Daytona 500 because of rain, the first time in the 54-year history of the event that it has been delayed a day.

Heavy rain soaked Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, and NASCAR never had a big enough window to dry the track.

Australian driver Marcos Ambrose will now wait an extra day for the start of his fourth full season of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.

The 500-mile race was rescheduled for midday on Monday (0400 AEDT on Tuesday).

Carl Edwards, runner-up to Tony Stewart in last year’s championship race, will start from the pole.

Former IndyCar star Danica Patrick will make her Daytona 500 debut.

The last shortened Daytona 500 was Matt Kenseth’s 2009 victory, when rain stopped the event 48 laps from the finish.

He was declared the winner while the cars were parked on pit road.

The 2010 race had more than two hours in delays as NASCAR twice stopped the event to fix a pesky pothole in the surface.

Jamie McMurray held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win that race.

This time around, drivers retreated to their motorhomes, relaxing while keeping an eye on developments.

“Obviously, you want to go race,” driver AJ Allmendinger said.

“We get to race when we race. I know it (stinks) for the people sitting out there because they’ve got to sit in the rain. But for us, we go in here and we have push-up contests, we eat a lot of food and we have a good time.”

Earnhardt Jr., the 2004 Daytona 500 champion, takes a 129-race losing streak into the event.

His last victory was in 2008, his first season with powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports.