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Daytona International Speedway

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.

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 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. 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 The Daytona International Speedway Map

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 that 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.

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
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
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
Race (300 miles)	1985	February 16	Geoff Bodine	Pontiac	1:54:33	157.137
Race (250 miles)	2001	July 4	Dale Earnhardt, Sr.	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