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,
dirt bikes,
motorcycles,
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.
NASCAR was founded by
William France Sr. 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 NASCAR Championship's most important race, the
Daytona 500, 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 is very long dating back to the inaugural race in
1959, and includes "The King"
Richard Petty, 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
Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona is also held at Daytona.
The racing season begins at Daytona starting with the testing sessions. The year's racing begins 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
GM Flex Fuel 250. The
Busch Series begins with the
Hershey's Kissables 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. 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.
It also contains an attraction called
Daytona USA. The winning car from the Daytona 500 is placed in front of the attraction building each year.
See also: List of NASCAR race tracksDeaths at the speedway
In the history of the Daytona International Speedway (
as of 2005), many people have been killed at the speedway.
Marshall Teague became track's first fatality, in a practice crash in 1959. Slick Johnson died from injuries in an
ARCA race in 1990.
Bruce Jacobi,
Ricky Knotts,
Friday Hassler and
Talmadge Prince were killed in qualifying races.
Neil Bonnett and
Rodney Orr were killed in practice sessions for the 1994 Daytona 500; and Dale Earnhardt — the first person ever to be killed
in the Daytona 500 — died on the final lap in
2001.
Ray Paprota struck and killed track worker
Roy Weaver in
2004 during the IPOWER Dash Series 150.
|
Aerial view of Daytona International Speedway (undated), courtesy of the Florida Photographic Collection |
*
NASCAR Nextel Cup -
Budweiser Shootout*
NASCAR Nextel Cup -
Gatorade Duel*
NASCAR Nextel Cup -
Daytona 500*
NASCAR Nextel Cup -
Pepsi 400*
NASCAR Busch Series -
Hershey's Kissables 300*
NASCAR Busch Series -
Winn-Dixie 250 presented by PepsiCo
*
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series -
GM Flex Fuel 250*
IROC Round One (2.5 mile oval) & Round Three (New in 2006, to be run on the infield road course)
*
ARCA RE/MAX Series -
Daytona ARCA 200*
Daytona 200 Superbike racing (motorcycles)
* Daytona Supercross (motocross racing) (motorcycles)
*
Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona*
Grand-American Sports Car Series -
Paul Revere 250 by
Brumos*
NASCAR Nextel Cup Qualifying:
Bill Elliott, 42.783 sec. (210.364 mph),
1987 (before restrictor plates)
*
NASCAR Nextel Cup Race (500 miles):
Buddy Baker, 2 hrs. 48 min. 55 sec. (177.602 mph),
February 17,
1980 (before restrictor plates)
*
NASCAR Nextel Cup Race (400 miles):
Bobby Allison, 2 hrs. 18 min. 21 sec. (173.473 mph),
July 4,
1980 (before restrictor plates)
*
NASCAR Busch Series Qualifying:
Tommy Houston, 46.299 sec. (194.389 mph),
1987 (before restrictor plates)
*
NASCAR Busch Series Race (300 miles):
Geoffrey Bodine, 1 hr. 54 min. 33 sec. (157.137 mph),
February 16,
1985 (before restrictor plate)
*
NASCAR Busch Series Race (250 miles):
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., 1 hr. 37 min. 35 sec. (153.715 mph),
July 4,
2003*
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying:
Joe Ruttman, 47.984 sec. (187.63 mph)
2000*
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race (250 miles):
Mark Martin, 146.622 mph,
February 17,
2006*Most wins at Daytona:
Dale Earnhardt (
34: six
Winston Cup Budweiser Shootouts, twelve
Twin 125s, seven
Busch Series Goody's/NAPA 300s, one
Daytona 500, six
IROC races and two
Pepsi 400s) [
1]
*
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
