Daytona International Speedway
Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, about north of Orlando. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR as well as its season opening event. The venue also hosts the 24 Hours of Daytona, one of three races that make up the Triple Crown of endurance racing. In addition to NASCAR and IMSA, the track also hosts races of ARCA, AMA Superbike Championship, SCCA, and AMA Supercross Championship. The track features multiple layouts including the primary high-speed tri-oval, a sports car course, a motorcycle course, and a karting and motorcycle flat-track. The track's infield includes the Lake Lloyd, which has hosted powerboat racing.
The track was built in 1959 by NASCAR founder William "Bill" France Sr. to host racing that was held at the former Daytona Beach Road Course. His banked design permitted higher speeds and gave fans a better view of the cars. The speedway is operated by NASCAR pursuant to a lease with the City of Daytona Beach on the property that runs until 2054. The venue describes itself as the "World Center of Racing".
Lights were installed around the track in 1998, and today it is the third-largest single-lit outdoor sports facility. The speedway has been renovated four times, with the infield renovated in 2004 and the track repaved in 1978 and 2010. On January 22, 2013, the fourth speedway renovation was unveiled. On July 5, 2013, ground was broken on "Daytona Rising" to remove backstretch seating and completely redevelop the frontstretch seating. The renovation was by design-builder Barton Malow Company in partnership with Rossetti Architects. The project was completed in January 2016, and cost US $400 million. It emphasized improved fan experience with five expanded and redesigned fan entrances, as well as wider and more comfortable seats, and more restrooms and concession stands. After the renovations were complete, the track's grandstands had 101,500 permanent seats with the ability to increase permanent seating to 125,000. The project was finished before the start of Speedweeks in 2016.
Track history
Construction
founder William France Sr. began planning for the track in 1953 as a way to promote the series, which at the time was racing on the Daytona Beach Road Course. France met with Daytona Beach engineer Charles Moneypenny to discuss his plans for the speedway. He wanted the track to have the highest banking possible to allow the cars to reach high speeds and to give fans a better view of the cars on track. Moneypenny traveled to Detroit, Michigan to visit the Ford Proving Grounds which had a high-speed test track with banked corners. Ford shared their engineering design of the track with Moneypenny, providing the needed details of how to transition the pavement from a flat straightaway to a banked corner. France took the plans to the Daytona Beach city commission, who supported his idea and formed the Daytona Beach Speedway Authority.The city commission agreed to lease the parcel of land adjacent to Daytona Beach Municipal Airport to France's corporation for $10,000 a year over a 50-year period. France then began working on building funding for the project and found support from a Texas oil millionaire, Clint Murchison, Sr. Murchison lent France $600,000 along with the construction equipment necessary to build the track. France also secured funding from Pepsi-Cola, General Motors designer Harley Earl, a second mortgage on his home and selling 300,000 stock shares to local residents. Ground broke on construction of the speedway on November 25, 1957.
France obtained the funding from Pepsi-Cola after first contacting the Coca-Cola company for funds. Coca-Cola refused, saying that construction would never be complete in time for France's desired date for the first race at the speedway. Pepsi-Cola gave him the funds immediately, and as a result, France refused to serve Coca-Cola as a concession at Daytona and all other NASCAR tracks he owned until Coca-Cola was named the "Official Soft Drink of NASCAR" in 1998.
To build the high banking, crews had to excavate over a million square yards of soil from the track's infield. Because of the high water table in the area, the excavated hole filled with water to form what is now known as Lake Lloyd, named after Joseph "Sax" Lloyd, one of the original six members of the Daytona Beach Speedway Authority. 22 tons of lime mortar had to be brought in to form the track's binding base, over which asphalt was laid. Because of the extreme degree of banking, Moneypenny had to come up with a way to pave the incline. He connected the paving equipment to bulldozers anchored at the top of the banking. This allowed the paving equipment to pave the banking without slipping or rolling down the incline. Moneypenny subsequently patented his construction method and later designed Talladega Superspeedway and Michigan International Speedway. By December 1958, France had begun to run out of money and relied on race ticket sales to complete construction. He also received a substantial sum of money from the Pepsi company after attempting to obtain the money to finish construction from the Coca-Cola Company and being turned down. For years from when the track opened to France's death, France never allowed Coca-Cola to be sold as a concession at any of the tracks he owned as a result.
The first practice run on the new track was on February 6, 1959. On February 22, 1959, 42,000 people attended the inaugural Daytona 500. Its finish was as startling as the track itself: Lee Petty beat Johnny Beauchamp in a photo finish that took three days to adjudicate. When the track opened it was the fastest race track to host a stock car race, until Talladega Superspeedway opened 10 years later. On April 4, it hosted a Champ Car event which saw Jim Rathmann beat Dick Rathmann and Rodger Ward, at an average speed of, at the time the fastest motor race ever. It was the occasion of Daytona's first fatality: George Amick, attempting to overtake for third late in the race, hit a wall and was killed. April 5, a scheduled sports car event was won by Roberto Mieres and Fritz d'Orey, who shared a Porsche RSK, which proved more durable than more potent competition.
Lights were installed around the track in 1998 to run NASCAR's July race, the Coke Zero 400 at night. The track was the world's largest single lighted outdoor sports facility until being surpassed by Losail International Circuit in 2008. Musco Lighting installed the lighting system, which took into account glare and visibility for aircraft arriving and departing nearby Daytona Beach International Airport, and costs about $240 per hour when in operation.
Layouts
Tri-oval
Daytona's tri-oval is long with 31° banking in the turns and 18° banking at the start/finish line. The front straight is long and the back straight is long. The tri-oval shape was revolutionary at the time as it greatly improved sight lines for fans. It is one of the three tracks on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit that are considered "drafting tracks", the others being Talladega Superspeedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway.On July 15, 2010, repaving of the track began. This came almost a year earlier than planned due to the track coming apart during the 2010 Daytona 500. The project used an estimated 50,000 tons of asphalt to repave including the racing surface, apron, skid pads and pit road. Because of good weather, the project was completed ahead of schedule.
On October 9, 2013, Colin Braun drove a Daytona Prototype car prepared by Michael Shank Racing to set a single-lap record on the tri-oval configuration of. During NASCAR events, it takes less than a minute for the cars to complete a lap around the tri-oval course.
Road courses
While the more famous 24 Hours of Le Mans is held near the summer solstice, Daytona's endurance race is held in winter. The track's lighting system is limited to 20% of its maximum output for the race to keep cars dependent on their headlights.The road course was built in 1959 and first hosted a three-hour sports car race called the Daytona Continental in 1962. The race length became in 1964, and in 1966 was extended to a 24-hour endurance race known as the Rolex 24 at Daytona. It was shortened again to six hours in 1972 and the 1974 rendition of the race was cancelled entirely.
In 1973, a very sharp chicane was added at the end of the backstretch, approaching oval turn three.
In 1984 and 1985, the layout was modified, re-profiling road course turns 1 and 2, and moving what is now turn 3 closer to its preceding turns. Also, the chicane on the backstretch was modified. A new entry leg was constructed approximately earlier, resulting in a longer, three-legged, "bus stop" shape. Cars would now enter in the first leg, bypass the second leg, and exit out of the existing third leg. Passing would now be possible inside the longer chicane. The construction resulted in a final length of for the complete road course.
In 2003, the backstretch chicane was modified once again. The middle leg was repaved and widened, and now cars would enter through the first leg, and exit out of the second leg. The existing third leg was abandoned. This allowed cars a cleaner entry into oval turn three. After favorable results, in 2010 the third leg was demolished and removed permanently.
In 2005, a second infield road course configuration was constructed, primarily for motorcycles. Due to fears of tire wear on the banked oval sections, oval turns 1 and 2 were bypassed giving the new course a length of. The Daytona SportBike that runs the Daytona 200 however, uses the main road course except for the motorcycle Pedro Rodríguez Hairpin.
On September 26 and 27, 2006, the IndyCar Series held a compatibility test on the 10-turn, modified road course, and the 12-turn motorcycle road course with 5 drivers. The drivers who tested at the track were Vítor Meira, Sam Hornish Jr., Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon. This marked the first time since 1984 that open wheel cars have taken to the track at Daytona. On January 31 – February 1, 2007, IndyCar returned for a full test involving 17 cars.
On July 8, 2020, NASCAR announced that it would race the Daytona road course in all of its national series for the first time in mid-August, due to current COVID-19 pandemic health restrictions in New York state preventing the use of Watkins Glen International. On July 30, a modification of the course to add a chicane near the exit of Turn 12 was announced, lengthening the course to.
On January 21, 2024, Pipo Derani set the fastest ever recorded lap of the modern Daytona road course, with a 1:32.656 driving a Cadillac V-Series.R during qualifying for the 2024 24 Hours of Daytona. During the same session, every entrant in the IMSA GTP class broke the course lap record previously set by Oliver Jarvis in a Mazda RT24-P in 2019.