Daytona International Speedway
is a superspeedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is a 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 road course and a infield, including the 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 races around the track, as there have been three different layouts.
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DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TICKETS
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Course 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 25th,
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 started with the
2008 Daytona 500 and continues 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 started 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
ARCA RE/MAX Series Daytona ARCA 200 is held the same day as the Budweiser Shootout, a few hours prior to the Shootout. The
Craftsman Truck Series begins with the
Chevy Silverado 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
Coke Zero 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"
[1] 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.
[2] 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 speeds, the other being
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 2008, drivers complained about the grip of the track and the cracks and bumps on the surface.
It also contains an attraction called the
Daytona 500 Experience. The winning car from the Daytona 500 is placed inside the attraction building each year. The track is depicted in its current state on
Indy Racing League
On September 26 and 27, 2006, the
IRL held a compatibility test on the 10-turn, modified road course, and the 12-turn motorcycle road course (the IRL also uses the motorcycle layout at
Infineon Raceway for safety) with 5 drivers. The drivers who tested at the track were
Vitor Meira, 2006
Indy 500 Champion
Sam Hornish Jr.,
Tony Kanaan,
Scott Dixon, and 2005
Indy 500 and
IndyCar Series champion
Dan Wheldon. This marked the first time since 1959 that IndyCars and the first time since 1984 tha open wheel cars have taken to the track at Daytona.
On
January 31-
February 1,
2007, the Indy Racing League returned for a full test involving 17 cars. No official announcements were made, but the series is reportedly considering the ultimate goal of having a race in the future.
Deaths at the speedway
Many notable drivers and participants, including
Dale Earnhardt, have been fatally injured during auto, motorcycle, and powerboat racing events at the Daytona International Speedway. These deaths have been the focus of widespread media attention and many safety studies, leading to the development of more effective racing seats, seatbelts, helmet restraint systems, energy-absorbing walls, and other safety-related gear.
[3]
See List of Daytona International Speedway fatalities.
Records
| Record
| Year
| Date
| Driver
| Car Make
| Time
| Average Speed
(mph)
|
| NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
|
| Qualifying
| 1987
| February 9
| Bill Elliott
| Ford
| 42.783
| 210.364
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| Race (500 miles)
| 1980
| February 17
| Buddy Baker
| Oldsmobile
| 2:48:55
| 177.602
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| Race (400 miles)
| 1980
| July 4
| Bobby Allison
| Oldsmobile
| 2:18:21
| 173.473
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| Race (250 miles)
| 1961
| July 4
| David Pearson
| Pontiac
| 1:37:13
| 154.294
|
| NASCAR Nationwide Series
|
| Qualifying
| 1987
|
| Tommy Houston
| Buick
| 46.299
| 194.389
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| Race (300 miles)
| 1985
| February 16
| Geoff Bodine
| Pontiac
| 1:54:33
| 157.137
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| Race (250 miles)
| 2001
| July 4
| Dale Earnhardt, Sr.
| Chevrolet
| 1:37:35
| 153.715
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| NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
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| Qualifying
| 2000
|
| Joe Ruttman
| Dodge
| 47.984
| 187.563
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| Race (250 miles)
| 2006
| February 17
| Mark Martin
| Ford
| 1:42:18
| 146.622
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- Most wins at Daytona International Speedway
: Dale Earnhardt, 34
- *1 win- Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500
- *2 wins- Sprint Cup Series Pepsi 400
- *6 wins- Sprint Cup Series Budweiser Shootout
- *12 wins- Sprint Cup Series Twin 125s
- *7 wins- NASCAR Nationwide Series Goody's/NAPA 300
- *6 wins- International Race of Champions
- Most distance traveled in 24 Hours
: - 1982 24 Hours of Daytona
- *Drivers: John Paul Sr., John Paul Jr., and Rolf Stommelen
- *Car: Porsche 935
Photos
References
- Musco.com
- [1] Article on road course
- ''Daytona: From the Birth of Speed to the Death of the Man in Black''. Hinton, Ed. Warner Books, 2001. ISBN 0-446-52677-0.