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Coke Zero 400
Daytona International Speedway
Coke Zero 400
Daytona International Speedway
NASCAR Sprint Cup Race #17 of 36 for the 2015 season
Sunday, July 05, 2015
Radio:
TV:
MRN, 6:30 p.m. (ET)
NBC 7:00 p.m.
Scheduled Green Flag (approx): 8:04pm/et
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FRIDAY, JULY 3:
ON TRACK
-- 2-2:55 p.m. NASCAR XFINITY Series practice, NBC Sports Network (Follow live)
-- 3-3:55 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, NBC Sports Network (Follow live)
-- 4-4:55 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series final practice, NBC Sports Network (Follow live)
-- 5-5:55 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series final practice, NBC Sports Network (Follow live)
GARAGECAM (Watch live)
-- 1:30 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series
-- 2:30 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
SATURDAY, JULY 4:
ON TRACK
-- 2:35 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, NBC Sports Network (Follow live)
-- 4:35 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, NBC Sports Network (Follow live)
-- 7:45 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series Subway Firecracker 250 (100 laps, 250 miles), NBC Sports Network (Follow live)
SUNDAY, JULY 5:
ON TRACK
-- 7:45 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola (160 laps, 400 miles), NBC (Follow live)
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Track Specifications:
Track/Race Length: 2.5 mile oval, 160 laps, 400 miles
Tri-oval with 31-degree banking in the turns
18-degree banking in the tri-oval and 6-degree banking on the straightaways
Date track opened: 1959
Banking in turns 1-4: 31 degrees
Banking in tri-oval: 18 degrees
Banking on backstretch: 3 degrees
Banking on the straightaway: 6 degrees
Length of frontstretch: 3,800 feet
Length of backstretch: 3,400 feet
Grandstand Seating: 147,000 [was 168,000, will be 101,000 in 2016].
Pit Road Speed: 55 mph
Pace Car Speed: 70 mph
Pit Road Length: 1,600 feet
Pit Road Width: 50 feet
Opened: 1959
Construction
NASCAR founder William France Sr. began planning for the track in 1953 as a way to promote the series, which at the time was racing on the Daytona Beach Road Course.[3] France met with Daytona Beach engineer Charles Moneypenney to discuss his plans for the speedway. He wanted the track to have the highest banking possible to allow the cars to reach high speeds and to give fans a better view of the cars on track. Moneypenny traveled to Detroit, Michigan to visit the Ford Proving Grounds which had a high speed test track with banked corners. Ford shared their engineering reports of the track with Moneypenney, providing the needed details of how to transition the pavement from a flat straightaway to a banked corner. France took the plans to the Daytona Beach city commission, who supported his idea and formed the Daytona Beach Speedway Authority.[4]
The city commission agreed to lease the 447 acres (181 ha) parcel of land adjacent to Daytona Beach International Airport to France's corporation for $10,000 a year over a 50-year period. France then began working on building funding for the project and found support from a Texas oil millionaire, Clint Murchison. Murchison loaned France $600,000 along with the construction equipment necessary to build the track. France was also able to secure funding from Pepsi-Cola, General Motors designer Harley Earl, a second mortgage on his home and selling 300,000 stock shares to local residents. Ground broke on construction of the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) speedway on November 25, 1957.[4]
To build the high banking, crews had to dig out millions[citation needed] of tons of soil from the track's infield. Because of the high water table in the area, the hole excavated filled with water to form what is now known as Lake Lloyd, named after Joseph "Sax" Lloyd, one of the original six members of the Daytona Beach Speedway Authority. (The lake would be stocked with 65,000 fish, and France would arrange speedboat races on it.)[5] 22 tons of lime mortar had to be brought in to form the track's binding base, over which asphalt would be laid. Because of the extreme degree of banking, Moneypenney had to come up with a way to pave the incline. He connected the paving equipment to bulldozers anchored at the top of the banking. This would allow the paving equipment to pave the banking without slipping or rolling down the incline. Moneypenney subsequently patented his construction method and later designed Talladega Superspeedway and Michigan International Speedway. By December 1958, France had begun to run out of money and started relying on race ticket sales to complete construction.[4]
The first practice run on the new track began on February 6, 1959. On February 22, 1959, 42,000 people attended the inaugural Daytona 500,[4] and its finish was as startling as the track itself: Lee Petty beat Johnny Beauchamp in a photo finish that took three days to adjudicate.[6] When the track opened it was the fastest race track to ever host a stock car race, until Talladega Superspeedway opened 10 years later.[citation needed] April 4, it would host a 100 mi (160 km) Champ Car event, also, which saw Jim Rathmann beat Dick Rathmann and Rodger Ward, and, with an average speed 170.26 mph (274.01 km/h), was at the time the fastest motor race ever.[6] It was also the occasion of Daytona's first fatality: George Amick, attempting to overtake for third late in the race, hit a wall and was killed.[6] April 5, a scheduled 1,000 km (620 mi) sports car event (shortened to 560 mi (900 km) by darkness) was won by Roberto Mieres and Fritz d'Orey, who shared a Porsche RSK, which proved more durable than more potent competition.[6]
Lights were installed around the track in 1998 to run NASCAR's July race, the Coke Zero 400 at night. The track was the world's largest single lighted outdoor sports facility until being surpassed by Losail International Circuit in 2008.[citation needed] Musco Lighting installed the lighting system, which took into account glare and visibility for aircraft arriving and departing nearby Daytona Beach International Airport, and costs about $240 per hour when in operation.[7]
On January 22, 2013, the track unveiled artist depictions of a renovated speedway. On July 5, 2013, ground was broken on the project that will remove backstretch seating and completely redevelop the frontstretch seating. The renovation to the speedway is being completed by Rossetti Architects. The project, named "Daytona Rising", is scheduled to be completed in January 2016, and is expected to cost US $400 million, placing emphasis on improving fan experience with five expanded and redesigned fan entrances (called "injectors"), as well as wider and more comfortable seating with more restrooms and concession stands. After the renovations, the track's grandstands will include 101,000 permanent seats with the ability to increase permanent seating to 125,000.[1][2] Currently, the project is taking down the Sprint Tower on the frontstretch of the track while the backstretch seats are being taken down in order to get 60% complete before the Coke Zero 400 and finished before Speedweeks 2016.
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