The Daytona 500: The Thrill and Thunder of the Great American Race
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
Race car drivers get ready to race across the sands of Daytona Beach in
The Birthplace of Speed he year was 1903 America's roads were courses for horses not cars NASCAR wouldn't exist for another 44 years Automotive pioneer Ransom E Olds was vacationing at Ormond Beach Florida when he discovered that the long coastline and the hard packed beaches of Daytona and Ormond were ideal for high speed driving The damp sand cooled a car's tires maximizing grip And cars didn’t kick up clouds of dust as they did on dirt roads On March 28 a match race between Ransom Olds and wealthy car owner Alex Winton was the talk of the town H T Thomas an Oldsmobile engineer drove Ransom Olds's car It was nicknamed the Pirate for its bare bones appearance Alex Winton drove his own car which he called the Bullet The Ormond Challenge Cup was to be the first official race on the beach Once the dead fish and other sea debris were cleared from a one mile stretch of sand the beach course was ready At the pop of the gun H T Thomas stomped on the gas His car reached speeds of nearly 50 miles per hour Slow off the line Winton was about 50 yards behind before he even got going But at the finish the Bullet shot by the Pirate winning by about one fifth of second a
