DAYTONAINTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

Long before the concrete and steel of Daytona International Speedway rose from the Florida sand, racing had already made its home on Daytona Beach. In the early 1900s, the hard-packed sand of the beach became a natural speedway where land speed records were set and broken.

Bill France Sr., a mechanic and race car driver who moved to Daytona Beach in 1934, saw the potential for organized stock car racing. After founding NASCAR in 1948, France dreamed of building a permanent superspeedway that would dwarf anything the racing world had ever seen.

Construction began in 1957 on a 2.5-mile tri-oval with banking so steep—31 degrees in the turns—that many thought it impossible. When the track opened on February 22, 1959, for the first Daytona 500, it changed motorsport forever.

The track's unique tri-oval design, with its distinctive dogleg on the frontstretch, creates some of the most exciting racing in motorsport. The steep banking allows cars to maintain incredible speeds through the turns, leading to the close-quarters, drafting-heavy racing that defines superspeedway competition.

Today, Daytona International Speedway hosts the Daytona 500—"The Great American Race"—every February, drawing hundreds of thousands of fans and millions of television viewers worldwide. It remains the most important race on the NASCAR calendar and a bucket-list destination for racing fans everywhere.