Daytona International Speedway officials announced, in Talladega, that the venerable 2.5 mile, high-banked, super speedway will be repaved in July following the 400 mile race there.
Embarrassed by the two-hour delay to fix a pothole this year and hurt by fans leaving the facility and TV viewers who tuned out the tv broadcast during the delay, track president, Robin Braig, said that the project is to be completed and ready for the 2011 Daytona 500. “We can’t risk it. We owe it to NASCAR and our TV partners. We can’t risk it again.”
The completion date is targeted for January 1, 2011.
The track opened in 1959 and was repaved once, in 1978, since then. Although many drivers liked the racing surface, bumps and all, the track located in North Florida does get freeze and thaw cycles and suffered heavy flooding with standing water in 2009. Cars bottoming also added to issues with the track surface.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s most popular driver, is happy about the news. “I think is it a good choice to put a new surface down. The old surface was a lot of fun, but it is kind of getting past its prime I think. The sooner we get a new surface down that can get some weather on it, the quicker we will get to the kind of race track that everybody wants.
“It is one of the most popular and important tracks on our circuit. I’m glad to see it get a facelift. It should be a lot of fun when we go back there. It should be a really good looking track and surface.”
This year’s Daytona 500 winner, Jamie McMurray, was also in favor of the repaving. “It is going to make the racing a little bit different. Probably more side-by-side longer throughout the run. Daytona has always been the place you could run 10 or 12 laps wide open and then you start to slide around. With the bumps off of turn two and off of turn four, it made it harder to run side-by-side. I would assume we will see more three wide, side-by-side for longer throughout the run. It should be really exciting for the fans.”
And the track added a bonus: Season ticket renewals will get a piece of the old asphalt on the form of a paper weight as a memento.
Embarrassed by the two-hour delay to fix a pothole this year and hurt by fans leaving the facility and TV viewers who tuned out the tv broadcast during the delay, track president, Robin Braig, said that the project is to be completed and ready for the 2011 Daytona 500. “We can’t risk it. We owe it to NASCAR and our TV partners. We can’t risk it again.”
The completion date is targeted for January 1, 2011.
The track opened in 1959 and was repaved once, in 1978, since then. Although many drivers liked the racing surface, bumps and all, the track located in North Florida does get freeze and thaw cycles and suffered heavy flooding with standing water in 2009. Cars bottoming also added to issues with the track surface.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s most popular driver, is happy about the news. “I think is it a good choice to put a new surface down. The old surface was a lot of fun, but it is kind of getting past its prime I think. The sooner we get a new surface down that can get some weather on it, the quicker we will get to the kind of race track that everybody wants.
“It is one of the most popular and important tracks on our circuit. I’m glad to see it get a facelift. It should be a lot of fun when we go back there. It should be a really good looking track and surface.”
This year’s Daytona 500 winner, Jamie McMurray, was also in favor of the repaving. “It is going to make the racing a little bit different. Probably more side-by-side longer throughout the run. Daytona has always been the place you could run 10 or 12 laps wide open and then you start to slide around. With the bumps off of turn two and off of turn four, it made it harder to run side-by-side. I would assume we will see more three wide, side-by-side for longer throughout the run. It should be really exciting for the fans.”
And the track added a bonus: Season ticket renewals will get a piece of the old asphalt on the form of a paper weight as a memento.