The 2000 Daytona 500 was the first stock car race of the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series, the first of five No Bull 5 races, and the 42nd iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, February 20, 2000, before an audience of 200,000 in Daytona Beach, Florida at Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) permanent triangular-shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete.

In the final laps of the race, Robert Yates Racing's Dale Jarrett engaged in a battle for the lead against Tyler Jet Motorsports' Johnny Benson Jr. With four laps left in the race, Jarrett was able to pass Benson, retaining the lead until a caution came out with two laps left in the race for Jimmy Spencer. As the race ended under caution, Jarrett was the declared the winner at race's end. The victory was Jarrett's 23rd career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory, his first victory of the season, and his third and final Daytona 500 victory.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Roush Racing's Jeff Burton and owner-driver Bill Elliott finished second and third, respectively.

Daytona International Speedway is one of three superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the other two being Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long. The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.

After years of complaints over suspension issues first exposed after two fatal crashes in 1994 regarding overaggressive shock and spring setups, NASCAR decided for the "restrictor plate" races to implement standardised shocks and springs.

Qualifying was set by the 2000 Gatorade 125s. The top two positions were set by qualifying speeds held for the Gatorade 125s held on Saturday, February 12, with the top two qualifiers in the session earning the top two positions for the Daytona 500. The rest of the starting lineup was set in the Gatorade 125s held on Thursday, February 17, during two races. The top 14 finishers in the first race, excluding the pole position winner, set the inside row from rows two to 15, and the top 14 finishers in the second race, excluding the outside pole position winner, set the outside row from rows two to 15. The remaining non-qualifiers set positions 31-36 based on qualifying speeds from the first qualifying session held on Saturday. In addition, six provisionals based on the previous season's owner's points were given out, setting positions 37-42. The final position, position 43, was given to a past series champion who did not otherwise qualify by any other method. If no past champion needed the provisional, the position was given out to the next team in the previous season's owner's points.^[4]

Dale Jarrett, driving for Robert Yates Racing, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 47.098 and an average speed of 191.091 miles per hour (307.531 km/h) in Saturday's session.^[14]

13 drivers failed to qualify.