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 Car s. The facility also includes a 3.56 mile (5.7 km) road course and a 180-acre 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.
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 was filled with water 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, until all NASCAR tracks were told to sell
Coca-Cola as "The Official Soft-Drink of NASCAR",
Pepsi , and not
Coca-Cola , would come to be sold at all NASCAR Tracks that the France family owned.
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),
Busch Series (the stock car junior league), and
Nextel 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
Nextel Cup with the
Budweiser Shootout and the
Gatorade Duel . The
Craftsman Truck Series begins with the
Chevy Silverado HD 250 . The
Busch Series begins with the
Orbitz 300 and then it is back to the Nextel Cup in "The Great American Race," the Daytona 500. The Nextel Cup also features the
Pepsi 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 is officially known as "The World's Largest Single Lighted Outdoor Sports Facility"
Musco.com . 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.
{Link without Title} Article on road course
It is one of the two tracks on the NEXTEL Cup circuit that uses
Restrictor Plate s 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.
It also contains an attraction called
Daytona 500 Experience . The winning car from the Daytona 500 is placed inside the attraction building each year.
''See also:''
List Of NASCAR Race Tracks
On
September 26 and
27 ,
2006 , the
IRL held a compatibility test on the 10-turn, 2.73-mile modified road course, and the 12-turn 2.95-mile motorcycle road course 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 an open wheel car 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 during
Speedweeks 2008 .
{Link without Title}
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.''Daytona: From the Birth of Speed to the Death of the Man in Black''. Hinton, Ed. Warner Books, 2001. ISBN 0-446-52677-0.
''See
List Of Daytona International Speedway Fatalities .''
