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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.
Course history 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 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 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 tracks Indy Racing League On September 26 and 27, 2006 The Indy Racing League 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 Indy Racing League champion Dan Wheldon. This marked the first time since 1959 that Indy Cars and the first time since 1984 an open wheel car have taken to the track at Daytona. The test seem to had a few incidents but none major. Overall it seem to have been a successful test. The Indy Racing League is looking to use Daytona's Road Course for preseason testing with the ultimate goal of having a race in Speedweeks 2008. * Deaths at the speedway Numerous persons have been injured fatally during events at the Daytona International Speedway. Beginning with Marshall Teague in 1959, and most notably Dale Earnhardt during the 2001 Daytona 500. See List of Daytona International Speedway fatalities Current races Records | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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