Daytona International Speedway

Opened: 1959
Owner: International Speedway Corporation
Operator: International Speedway Corporation
Construction cost: $3 million
Architect: Bill France

Daytona International Speedway is a superspeedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is a 2.5 mile (4 km) tri-oval race track facility with a seating capacity of 168,000 spectators. It hosts races of motor vehicles of various kinds, including go-karts, motorcycles (on and off road), sports cars, modified pickup trucks, and stock cars. The facility also includes a 3.56 mile (5.7 km) road course and a 180-acre (0.73 km²) infield, including the 29 acre Lake Lloyd, which has hosted powerboat racing. The facility is also used for an annual spring car show and swap meet, and a Thanksgiving street rod meet, some of the largest of their kind, and various 5k foot races around the track, as there have been three different layouts.

History

NASCAR was founded by William France Sr. and a small group of fellow race promoters at Daytona Beach, Florida in 1947. The original premiere event in the series was held at the Daytona Beach Road Course. France began planning a new track for the premiere event in his fledgling series in 1953. On August 16, 1954 he signed a contract with city officials to create this new track that would become famous as the Daytona International Speedway. Ground was broken on November 25, 1957. The soil underneath the banked corners was dug from the infield of the track, and the large hole in the infield filled with water from the low water table and is now known as Lake Lloyd. The speedway opened on February 22, 1959 to a crowd of 41,000 people.

The track was almost not complete for that first race date, however. In 1958, needing more money to meet his goal, France traveled to Atlanta to meet with the Coca-Cola company to hopefully get funding to complete construction. Coca-Cola officials told him he would never finish it on time and refused to fund it. France then went to the Pepsi-Cola company, then headquartered in North Carolina, and they cut him a check on the spot. Because of this Pepsi, and not Coca-Cola, would come to be sold at all NASCAR Tracks that the France family owned, until 2008, when Pepsico changed its focus to mainly sponsorship of Hendrick Motorsports. Coca-Cola has sided with most independent tracks, and rival Speedway Motorsports most notably, but there is an ISC transition with Coca-Cola that will begin with the Firecracker 400 in July 2008 and continue with most ISC tracks, as Coca-Cola and NASCAR signed an official product deal starting in 1998, and was renewed until 2017. The new ten-year deal that starts in 2008 will also phase in Coca-Cola pouring rights to most ISC tracks.

The Daytona 500, the most important race for NASCAR’s premier series, is held annually at Daytona International Speedway. It is a 200-lap, 500 mile (805 km) stock car race. The list of Daytona 500 winners dates back to the inaugural race in 1959, and includes Richard Petty, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, and Dale Earnhardt.

NASCAR, the premier stock car organization in the United States, holds some of its most important races on this track. These include competitions in its Craftsman Truck Series (where pickup trucks are raced), Nationwide Series (the stock car junior league), and Sprint Cup Series. The 24 Hours of Daytona is also held at Daytona.

The racing season begins at Daytona starting with the testing sessions. The year’s racing begins with Speedweeks, starting with the 24 Hours of Daytona race in the Grand American Sports Car series. Then the racing begins for the Sprint Cup Series with the Budweiser Shootout and the Gatorade Duel. The Craftsman Truck Series begins with the Chevy Silverado HD 250. The Nationwide Series begins with the Camping World 300 and then it is back to the Sprint Cup in “The Great American Race,” the Daytona 500. The Sprint Cup Series also features the Coca-Cola Firecracker 400 in July at Daytona.

Lights were installed in 1998 so that the Pepsi 400 could be held at night. Musco Lighting was responsible for this event; and was officially known as “The World’s Largest Single Lighted Outdoor Sports Facility” before being surpassed by Losail International Circuit. However, the race was delayed until October that year due to thick smoke from wildfires that summer. The Pepsi 400 has been held under lights ever since.

In 2005, the infield road course was reconfigured for motorcycles. Due to fears of tire wear on the banked oval sections, oval turns 1 and 2 were bypassed. The course is also used for Indy Racing League testing.

It is one of the two tracks on the Sprint Cup Series circuit that uses restrictor plates to slow the cars down due to the high banking, the other being its sister track, Talladega Superspeedway. However, there are some differences in the racing at the two tracks, as Daytona is narrower and more handling-oriented than Talladega, which allows the huge packs to break up somewhat on long runs, which makes “the Big One” that plate tracks are famous for less frequent and usually on a start or restart, as opposed to Talladega, where such huge wrecks occurs in almost every race in almost any situation.

Over the years, the track asphalt has worn. During Sprint Cup testing in January of 2008, drivers began complaning about the grip of the track and the cracks and bumps on the surface. This makes it evident that the track will be scheduled for repavement in 2009 or 2010.

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Daytona International Speedway website
Daytona International Speedway wikipedia entry
NASCAR website

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