The Daytona 500: The Thrill and Thunder of the Great American Race
Contents Introduction Fasten Your Seat Belts The Birthplace of Speed 2 The Early Years of Daytona 3 Recent Decades 4 The Cars Inside and Out 5 start Your Engines O E O S S S S M A N un Special Feature Behind the Wheel with John Andretti Flags of NASCAR NASCAR Glossary and Slang Source Notes Further Reading Index
Fans pack the grandstand in Daytona Beach Florida to watch the cars roar by at the start of the 2009 Daytona
Introduction FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS hat takes two months of preparation two weeks of practice and two laps of qualifying It's the Daytona 500 the Super Bowl of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing NASCAR circuit While most major sports end their season with a bang NASCAR kicks off its season with a 500 mile explosion called the Great American Race About 200 000 eager race fans travel to the Daytona tri oval each February to cheer on their favorite drivers The two weeks of practicing qualifying and racing is called Speedweeks with a capital S NASCAR drivers work their way up through many different roads to reach the pinnacle of their career the Daytona 500 Some circle dirt covered tracks others negotiate the twists and turns of road racing while still others compete in go karts They are all weekend warriors traveling from track to track Most drivers win championships in one series or another on their journey to the Sprint Cup Series and the Daytona 500 Some drivers believe that winning the Daytona 500 is better than winning a championship You can't call your career complete unless you put a Daytona win under your belt said former champ Mario Andretti And you only get one chance a year It's almost unfair It’s the ultimate race said three time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon following his 2005 Daytona 500 victory There's just no better place to win at than Daytona You know the sport's getting more competitive It's getting bigger and it's just one of those races if you pick one this is the one you want win to
