AJ Allmendinger gives 130 mph tour of Daytona International Speedway
Before The NASCAR Foundation’s License to Drive Track Laps event July 23, AJ Allmendinger took us around Daytona twice in a Chevy Blazer pace car.
DAYTONA BEACH — With the Coke Zero Sugar 400 coming up Aug. 23, NASCAR fans are starting to turn their thoughts to Daytona International Speedway.
As the NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale nears, here’s a fun look at the place where the race will take place, and how the track wound up there.
NASCAR is born
In December 1947, a group of men involved with stock-car racing got together in the Ebony Lounge on top of the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach to form the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, which came to be known as NASCAR. Included in that meeting were about 35 car owners, track promoters, drivers and others involved with racing.
Leading the charge to form a unified, stock-car organization was William H.G. France, better known as Bill France, Sr.
France was a race driver and mechanic who owned a gas station on Daytona’s Main Street. He had started promoting races on the Daytona Beach and Road course in 1938.
Daytona International Speedway comes to life
NASCAR races were held in several different locations, including on Daytona’s Beach and Road course. But by 1958, France was working on building a permanent race track on the western side of Daytona Beach next to the city’s airport.
A year later, the huge new track dubbed Daytona International Speedway was ready for a race. The track cost an estimated $3 million to build.
On Feb. 22, 1959, the inaugural Daytona 500 was held on the 2.5-mile asphalt track with 31-degree high banks. Nearly 42,000 fans came to the newly built Speedway to watch 59 cars battle to fly past the checkered flag first.
France awarded the win for the 500-mile race and $19,050 in prize money to Lee Petty.
Staff writers Mark Lane and Godwin Kelly contributed to this report
