DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

'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 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.

Contents

Course history

Indy Racing League

Deaths at the speedway

Current races

Records

Photos

References

External links

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 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"^[1]. 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]
It is one of the two tracks on the NEXTEL Cup 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.
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

Indy Racing League

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.[2]

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.''

Current races

★ NASCAR stock car racing

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★ Nextel Cup - Budweiser Shootout

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★ Nextel Cup - Gatorade Duel

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★ Nextel Cup - Daytona 500 - "The Great American Race"

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★ Nextel Cup - Pepsi 400

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★ Busch Series - Orbitz 300

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★ Busch Series - Winn-Dixie 250 presented by PepsiCo

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★ Craftsman Truck Series - Chevy Silverado HD 250

★ ARCA stock car racing

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★ Daytona ARCA 200

★ AMA motorcycle racing

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★ Daytona 200 superbike racing

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★ Daytona Supercross (Motocross racing)

★ Sports car racing

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★ Rolex 24 at Daytona

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★ Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series - Paul Revere 250 by Brumos

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★ SCCA Club racing

Records

'Record'	'Year'	'Date'	'Driver'	'Car Make'	'Time'	'Average Speed (mph)'
'NASCAR Nextel Cup Series'
Qualifying	1987	February 9	Bill Elliott	Ford	42.783	210.364
Race (500 miles)	1980	February 17	Buddy Baker	Oldsmobile	2:48:55	177.602
Race (400 miles)	1980	July 4	Bobby Allison	Oldsmobile	2:18:21	173.473
'NASCAR Busch Series'
Qualifying	1987		Tommy Houston	Buick	46.299	194.389
Race (300 miles)	1985	February 16	Geoff Bodine	Pontiac	1:54:33	157.137
Race (250 miles)	2003	July 4	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	Chevrolet	1:37:35	153.715
'NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series'
Qualifying	2000		Joe Ruttman	Dodge	47.984	187.563
Race (250 miles)	2006	February 17	Mark Martin	Ford	1:42:18	146.622

★ 'Most wins at Daytona International Speedway': Dale Earnhardt, 34[3]

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★ 1 win- NEXTEL Cup Daytona 500

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★ 2 wins- NEXTEL Cup Pepsi 400

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★ 6 wins- NEXTEL Cup Budweiser Shootout

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★ 12 wins- NEXTEL Cup Twin 125s

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★ 7 wins- NASCAR Busch Series Goody's/NAPA 300

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★ 6 wins- International Race of Champions

Photos

References

1. Musco.com
2. [1] Article on road course
3. ''Daytona: From the Birth of Speed to the Death of the Man in Black''. Hinton, Ed. Warner Books, 2001. ISBN 0-446-52677-0.

External links

★ Daytona International Speedway Official Site

★ Daytona International Speedway Page on NASCAR.com

★ Jayski's Daytona International Speedway Page - Current and Past Daytona International Speedway News

★ Early track history

★ Trackpedia guide to driving this track

★ Satellite picture by Google Maps

★ Musco Lighting