CUP: Daytona 500 Facts, Figures and Folklore - Part 1
Bill France proposed a new speedway at Daytona in April 1953 and the Florida legislature was asked to create a special racing authority to oversee the project...
NASCAR Cup Series racing at Daytona International Speedway on July 5, 2008. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images Photo)
Thanks to “Daytona 500: An Official History,” by Bob Zeller
Land Speed racing on the beach at Ormond Beach and Daytona began in 1903 and ended with Sir Malcolm Campbell’s 276 MPH run in 1935. When land speed record racing moved to Bonneville, Daytona tried to keep its place as “the world center of speed” by staging a stock car race on a beach/road course in 1936. It did not go well. Bill France, participant in that first race, took over as promoter of future events and kept Daytona’s racing tradition alive…through the 1948 founding of NASCAR and the success of beach road course races through 1958.
The beach road course had to be moved to Ponce Inlet as development and congestion made running on Daytona Beach a nightmare. But even the move southward was only a temporary fix. France’s races were at the mercy of the tides and development moved south to Ponce Inlet as well. Many race fans snuck by the “Beware of Rattlesnakes” signs and watched the races for free. Most fans could only see a portion of the course and missed much of the action…and as Bill France Jr. said, “We were charging people for standing on somebody’s else’s land.” The solution…a permanent high banked “palace of speed” that would incorporate all the best features that France had experienced as a driver, promoter and spectator…high banks like the board tracks he raced on in his youth…a “doglegged” front stretch so grandstand spectators could see the cars all the way around the track…like France had experienced at circular Langhorne Speedway in Pennsylvania…and phenomenal speed…even faster than Indianapolis…a track from which he was physically removed in 1954.
France had proposed a new speedway at Daytona in April 1953. On April 22 the City Commission of Daytona Beach asked the Florida legislature to create a special racing authority to oversee the project.
December 1953: Lou Perini, owner of the Milwaukee Braves (like Roush-Fenway’s alliance of over a half-century later) was interested in building the speedway for $1,675,000.
France announced at 1954 Speedweeks that this would be the last race on the beach/road course… in 1955 the race would be held at the new speedway.
