From the pole, Blomqvist led the field at the start in the #60 MSR Acura ARX-06, while Sebastien Bourdais managed to moved up from fourth to second aboard the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-LMDh heading through the first sequence of corners.
Front-row starter Felipe Nasr was demoted to third in the best of the Penske-run Porsche 963s, the #7 car, followed by Ricky Taylor aboard the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura.
That was how the order looked at the front when problems for the Tower Motorsports LMP2 car, which stopped exiting Turn 6, caused the first full-course yellow of the race.
When action resumed, Blomqvist quickly established a three-second lead at the front, while Taylor briefly swapped positions with the #6 Porsche of Nick Tandy, which had started at the rear of the field, in the battle for fourth.
After being repassed for fourth, Tandy came under pressure from the #31 Action Express Cadillac of Pipo Derani, who attempted a lunge at Turn 1 and made contact with the Porsche. Both cars went off-track but continued, with Derani escaping a penalty.
Shortly after, the first round of pitstops began, with Blomqvist one of the last to come in. He resumed in the lead ahead of Taylor, who jumped to second, and Bourdais.
At the one-hour mark, Alex Lynn was up to fourth in the second of the Ganassi Cadillacs, followed by the two Porsches of Tandy and Nasr, who slipped from third to sixth.
Both BMW M Hybrid V8s struggled to keep the pace in the opening stint, and just as it was due for a pitstop, Nick Yelloly brought the #25 machine to a halt on track, and the car was subsequently taken to the garage.
Philipp Eng ran eighth in the surviving BMW behind Derani in the AXR Cadillac.
In the LMP2 class, Ben Keating drove away from his competitors aboard the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca, with Francois Heriau his nearest rival in the #35 TDS Racing car. Francois Perrodo ran third in the #88 AF Corse-run entry.
Nico Pino maintained the lead in the LMP3 class in the #33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier until handing over to Lance Willsey at the first round of pitstops. Dakota Dickerson recovered to second in the Andretti Autosport car after losing places early on.
WeatherTech Racing's Maro Engel maintained the lead in the GT Daytona Pro class after passing the two GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3s that had started ahead, the #75 SunEnergy1 car of Fabian Schiller and the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports machine of Mike Skeen.
Ross Gunn followed Engel through in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 before the pair handed over to David Pittard and Cooper MacNeil respectively at their first pitstops, with Pittard moving ahead.
Antonio Garcia had the solo Corvette C8.R up to third in GTD Pro with an impressive opening stint, and stayed aboard at his first stop.
Skeen stayed aboard the Team Korthoff Mercedes at the first round of stops to lead GTD, while Kyle Marcelli did likewise in the Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 to move into second.
