(workingonmyredneck file photo)

My cyberspace buddy and fellow NASCAR blogger, Bruce Simmons wrote an article on his web site, BruSimm.com about re-visiting the rules regarding the double yellow lines at Talladega and Daytona.

In the article, Bruce addresses the need for the double yellow line during the race, and WOMR concurs with . . . → Read More: Double Yellow Line Rules Need Refining]]>

(workingonmyredneck file photo)

My cyberspace buddy and fellow NASCAR blogger, Bruce Simmons wrote an article on his web site, BruSimm.com about re-visiting the rules regarding the double yellow lines at Talladega and Daytona.

In the article, Bruce addresses the need for the double yellow line during the race, and WOMR concurs with the need for that requirement.  It is for the safety of the drivers, and quite possibly the safety of the fans, as well, to have an “out of bounds” area.

Like Bruce, here at WOMR, I believe that the double yellow line should not play a factor when the checkered flag is waving for the drivers as they exit turn four racing for the win. When the drivers can see the checkered flag waving, then all paved surfaces should be in play!  Sometimes the faster race car might be the race car in second place coming to the checkered flag, and car gets stuck, blocked, or otherwise prevented from making the pass for the win.  For this reason, therefore, all the paved surfaces should be fair game for the win!

“Have at it boys”!

The best argument for this idea occurred at a Talladega race just a couple of years ago when Tony Stewart and Regan Smith were racing for the win.  As they raced out of turn four heading to the tri-oval, and the checkered flag, Tony Stewart was leading the race.  Stewart was leading and blocking the faster car of Reagan Smith.  Ultimately, Stewart ran Smith down below the double yellow line.  Brave and unnerved, Reagan Smith stayed on the gas, cut below the double yellow line, and avoided being involved in a potential “big one”, like the “Blazingly Bad” Brad Keselowski/ “Cousin Carl” Edwards  devastating crash in the next Talladega race.

Smith crossed the start/finish line slightly ahead of Stewart in the lead, but definitely down below the double yellow line.  However, NASCAR penalized Smith for going below the double yellow line, therefore, giving the victory to Tony Stewart.  The questions regarding the double yellow line have stirred every since that race, and its place in racing for the win.

In the spirit of the new “Have at it Boys” mentality of NASCAR, it might be worth it for NASCAR to revisit the double yellow line ruling, and quite possibly, re-define its importance on the final lap of the race at both Daytona and Talladega.  When the drivers comes to the checkered flag, it is the view here at WOMR that the double yellow line should be invisible and let them use all paved surfaces to try to win the race!

What is your view on the double yellow lines rules?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

The 375 acres that the Daytona International Speedway rest upon, near the Daytona International Airport was a swampy, muddy, snake infested piece of earth!  With that being said, it is important to trace the history of events that led up to Bill France wanting to build the biggest, . . . → Read More: The Building of The Daytona International Speedway]]>

(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

The 375 acres that the Daytona International Speedway rest upon, near the Daytona International Airport was a swampy, muddy, snake infested piece of earth!  With that being said, it is important to trace the history of events that led up to Bill France wanting to build the biggest, fastest race track in the world.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the 26 mile of pristine beach that bordered Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach was a mecca for speed.  However, beach racing was dictated by the tides.  Additionally, the beach part of the racing area would get torn up and rutted from the heavy stock cars.  Moreover, beachfront development began encroaching on the racing area.  Still another problem with the site for racing didn’t allow for an adequate crowd control.

Dealing with all those problems pushed Big Bill France to begin considering building a new racing venue in the city of Daytona Beach.  Around 1953 France started kicking around the idea of building a facility that would be a high-banked superspeedway.  There were a few problems that both impeded and propelled these decisions.  Daytona Beach was in the throws of a declining economical environment.  That climate got the city fathers on board with Bill France, they saw the gold lining to this almost outlandish idea that France was trying to peddle.  France took his plan to the commissioners looking for the requisite land mass that would accommodate his big plans.

After a large land search it was decided that the 375 acres adjacent to the airport would, most likely, accommodate France’s dream race track.  Now there was the problem of the price.  France lobbied the city fathers very hard for an extremely favorable lease deal as being the sole deal maker/breaker!  The city came through for Bill France and negotiated a very favorable lease agreement allowing the next step to begin, that is to find financing for the project.

France searched high and low throughout the local area for financing, to no avail.  He then decided to contacted the owners of the Milwaukee Braves and the Detroit Tigers, they were not interested in his business venture.  However, he struck gold when talking to the Dallas Cowboys owner and Texas oilman, Clint Murchison, Jr. Murchison acquiesced and lent Bill France $600,000 to begin construction of the Daytona International Speedway!

Because France was focused on building a 2 1/2 mile track, and nothing smaller, there was one problem with the initial 375 tract of land that he acquired.  Adjacent to the tract of land was a dof racing track that impeded on the initial design of the track.  After lobbying heavily with the county commissioners, they were able to secure a piece of land from the dog track.  With that small wedge of land, and redesigning the layout of the track, the ultimate configuration of the race track was built to fit into the land mass, out of necessity. It had to fit between the airport, the dog track, and Hiway 92, which runs along the front stretch of the facility.

Now to connect some of the rest of the dots of this story.  Long before Bill France was the head of NASCAR, he worked as a mechanic at Lloyd Buick in Daytona Beach.  Lloyd Buick was owned by J. Saxton Lloyd, a very respected businessman in the local area.  Years later J. Saxton Lloyd would play a very important role in the construction of the superspeedway.

The banking in the turns was scheduled to be 31 degrees, which were patterned after the board tracks of the 20′s.  Remembering that one of the main advantages to the banking is that there were no bad seats at the facility.  Additionally, because of the banking, you could see the race cars all the way around the track.

France knew that Ford had built a similar facility at one of their proving grounds.  So the initial engineering had been done on the transitions from a 31 degree banking to the 17 degrees in the tri-oval.  It just so happened that Charlie Moneypenny worked with Ford on that project and had the engineering savvy.  Moneypenny also held a “critical” piece of local knowledge key to successful construction of this facility!

The Daytona area consisted of “ball bearing” type sand.  Moneypenny, who helped design the old Naval air station, knew that there was a deep deposit of maral, a clay type soil, lying beneath the top soil on this particular site.  By digging up the maral and using it for the base of the racing surface, it would allow the building of the high banks for the turns.

With the mining of the maral, there was left a huge hole that ran most of the length of the back straight-away.  What to do with that was a short-termed problem.  France decided to fill the hole with water and name it, Lloyd Lake, after his former boss and political ally, J. Saxton Lloyd!

Finding the maral allowed the construction to kick into high gear.  However, the next problem was to figure out just how to pave these monstrous 31 degree banks!  After some trouble shooting, it was decided that the paving machines had to be tethered or anchored to prevent those machines from sliding down the sides of the banking.

The original grandstands provided seating for 25,000.  However foresight allowed for the additional pilings that we put into place for further expansion.

The construction proceeded at break-neck speed for the era which it was constructed in.  France broke ground in November 1957 and the first race was ran in February 1959!  The rest is history, sport fans!

What is you thoughts on the monumental construction project known as the Daytona International Speedway?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

(photo courtesy Daytona International Speedway)

The NASCAR Sprint Cup teams were busy Wednesday and Thursday testing out the new racing surface that was just laid down.  It was officially billed as a Goodyear tire testing session, but it was all about the new racing surface at Daytona!  The driver’s consensus was that . . . → Read More: New Surface May Make For A Wild Daytona 500]]>

(photo courtesy Daytona International Speedway)

The NASCAR Sprint Cup teams were busy Wednesday and Thursday testing out the new racing surface that was just laid down.  It was officially billed as a Goodyear tire testing session, but it was all about the new racing surface at Daytona!  The driver’s consensus was that the new surface provides good grip, and therefore, great prospects for a very exciting 2011 Daytona 500 in February.

“I think it’s going to be a hell of a race,” Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton said Thursday. “It’s going to be constant packs” of cars.

“Big packs, big action,” Penske Racing driver Kurt Busch said.

Also in consensus was the opinion that the new surface could produce excitement in the form of big wrecks!

“I don’t know the percentages but there’s no question the more cars in one bunch, the better the chances are for an accident,” Burton said.

Several drivers said the new surface makes DIS more similar to the other plate track on the schedule, Talladega Superspeedway, where the biggest of the big wrecks tend to occur.

“I would say that it (the new surface) would tend to increase (the odds of a big wreck) for the whole run,” Bobby Labonte said. “Before, the first part of the run was OK, 15 laps in (of a run), everybody starts spreading out a little bit. I’m not sure you’re going to see it spread out (this year in the 500).  It’s going to be more like Talladega.

“It’s going to lend to more pushing, more shoving, more drafting like that.”

Jamie McMurray, who drives for Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, said the 500 could get really wild.  “I think what fans don’t see in the plate races is that we wreck about every lap,” McMurray, one of the best plate racers in the sport, said. “Something happens every lap that makes you flinch and it makes you think and you need to take a breath. And when you run really close together, it increases those chances.

“Everybody is going to run really close and really tight and you just got to hope you can make it to the end because the odds are going to be really good, I’d say” that more big wrecks are going to occur.

As exciting as the 500 may be, the Bud Shootout may be even better on the new surface.

“The Shootout is going to be crazy,” Burton said. “It’s just going to be nuts.”

“It’s amazing the job that they did here,” said Jeff Gordon, a three-time Daytona 500 champion. “It’s really smooth. It’s got a lot of grip. I think we learned a tremendous amount by being here.”

“Not only did we get a chance to really see what we’re going to be dealing with here in February for the Daytona 500, but it gets us prepared for the test coming up in January.”

“They smoothed out all the bumps,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., the 2004 Daytona 500 champion. “The track is real smooth. It’s got a lot of grip. The track reminds me a lot like Talladega was like when they first finished it.

“The racing during the drafting was exciting and I think it is going to be a good show, a more exciting show for the fans because the cars are going to stay real tight on each other throughout entire runs.”

McMurray, who won last year’s 500, said the new surface and widened pit road will also make racing at DIS safer – for crews and drivers. He said that entry to the Daytona pits have been among the hardest in the sport. Kurt Busch called the old Daytona pits “treacherous”.

“It looks like green acres out there,” Busch said of the widen pits and bigger paves infield pads.

It appears that the new racing surface at Daytona has met the approval of all of those drivers that participated in the “Goodyear tire test”!  Notwithstanding, the one drawback of the speeds that were observed on Wednesday and Thursday, about 195mph, is that NASCAR is already looking at making the intake on the restrictor plate 1/64 of an inch smaller.  That will reduce the amount of air that is allowed into the carburetor manifold that mixes with the fuel.  The end results is less horsepower and slower speeds for the 2011 Daytona 500.

Nevertheless, WOMR can’t wait til the drop of the green flag on the 2011 Daytona 500, now just 65 days, 17 hours, and 34 minutes!  The excitement continues to build!

See you at Daytona!

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

(photo courtesy Daytona International Speedway)

The repaving of the famous Daytona International Speedway is now complete and it is just a matter of a few days before NASCAR allows the first series of testing.

Wednesday at 9 a.m. ET, nearly 20 Sprint Cup teams are set to work with Goodyear officials and . . . → Read More: The Resurfacing Is Complete At Daytona]]>

(photo courtesy Daytona International Speedway)

The repaving of the famous Daytona International Speedway is now complete and it is just a matter of a few days before NASCAR allows the first series of testing.

Wednesday at 9 a.m. ET, nearly 20 Sprint Cup teams are set to work with Goodyear officials and engineers on a two-day tire test to determine the best rubber compounds and tire construction for February’s Speedweeks.

Among the drivers tentatively scheduled to participate in the test are 2010 Daytona 500 champion Jamie McMurray and his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammate Juan Montoya, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., David Ragan, Matt Kenseth, Casey Mears, Trevor Bayne, Paul Menard, Jeff Burton, Bobby Labonte, Todd Bodine, Regan Smith, Reed Sorenson and Brian Keselowski.

The test is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday with a lunch break tentatively scheduled around noon. During Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Goodyear’s Rick Campbell said the test might be complete in one day, but NASCAR and the speedway have scheduled a media event at noon Thursday including several drivers and track, NASCAR and Goodyear officials.

During the test, the public has free access to a section of the Oldfield Grandstand through the lobby of the Daytona ticket office.

The repave, only the second since the track was built in 1958, began on July 5, two days after the midsummer Coke Zero 400 Cup race.

In the project’s 23rd week, the paving crew wrapped up the final pass on the apron in Turns 1 and 2 late Friday afternoon, following some morning inclement weather. While all the paving is complete on the racing surface, skid pad, pit road and the apron, there’s still a punch-list of items being worked on to get the speedway capable of holding the first of at least four test sessions that are scheduled before Speedweeks’ racing events.

Included on that list are finishing touches to the re-installation of the Musco stadium lighting, such as connectivity and adjustments of the lights; the striping of the track has begun and is ongoing; the process of hanging the eight caution lights around the track is ongoing; installation of the electronic “scoring loops” is ongoing; and finishing touches are being put on the catch fence in all four turns.

Lane Construction, which repaved other International Speedway Corporation race tracks including Talladega Superspeedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Richmond International Raceway and Darlington Raceway, used an estimated 50,000 tons of asphalt — prepared in a temporary facility installed behind the track’s backstretch — to repave more than 1.4 million square feet of the speedway.

Speedweeks 2011′s scheduled start is the 49th annual Rolex 24 At Daytona Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race on Jan. 29-30. It ends with the 53rd annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 20, the prestigious season-opening event to the Cup season

WOMR looked it up so that you wouldn’t have to!

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

The crew from Lane Construction began the most challenging aspect of the 2010 Daytona Repave on Thursday morning – putting new asphalt on the steep 31-degree high banks of Daytona International Speedway.

(photo courtesy Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

“The World Center of Racing”, that high banked racing facility known as the Daytona International Speedway, is getting a much needed facelift.  Starting Sunday morning the race cars have been replaced by bulldozers, road graders, cranes, and other heavy-duty work equipment.  The race track is is being . . . → Read More: Daytona Getting New Racing Surface]]>

(photo courtesy Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

“The World Center of Racing”, that high banked racing facility known as the Daytona International Speedway, is getting a much needed facelift.  Starting Sunday morning the race cars have been replaced by bulldozers, road graders, cranes, and other heavy-duty work equipment.  The race track is is being dug up and resurfaced for the first time in 32 years!

The construction crews have began the process by removing the light poles, the SAFER barrier system, and the safety fences/crash wall.  The 57 light poles, the safety fence , as well as 8,300 linear feet of the SAFER barrier are being completely dismantled.

“It’s an historic moment for this facility, and we’re excited to see the work on this project begin,” said Robin Braig, president of the Daytona Beach, Fla., track that is the epicenter of NASCAR’s empire.

DIS’ entire layout , featuring its signature turns banked at 31 degrees, will be repaved as well as the skid pads, apron and pit road. Concrete will be used for the pit stalls. All of the existing asphalt will be removed down to the original 52-year-old lime rock base, which will be leveled before repaving begins.

An estimated 50,000 tons of asphalt will be used on a project that will pave 1,435,000 square feet, or about 33 acres. The facility occupies 480 acres, including an infield portion of 180 acres.

The repaving of DIS will remain true to NASCAR founder Bill France Sr.’s original vision, layout and geometry of a project that broke ground on Nov. 25, 1957 on land adjacent to the city’s airport. At the time, Big Bill’s plans were regarded as blueprints for a marvel of engineering and construction. On cue, DIS played host to a field of 59 cars for the inaugural Daytona 500 on Feb. 22, 1959.

Amazingly, the racing surface has not been repaved since August 1978, a project that took several months and was finished in time for the 1979 Daytona 500.

The track is 40-feet wide, with an apron ranging from 12- to 30-feet. The track’s frontstretch measures 3,800 feet, including a 1,900-foot “chute” section from Turn 4 to the middle of the trioval, which is banked at 18 degrees. DIS’ “Superstretch” backstretch measures 3,000 feet.

Pit road measures 1,600 feet and has room for 43 stalls, each measuring 50 feet.

DIS’ 3.56-mile road course incorporates the trioval and a non-banked infield section.

A $20 million repaving originally was scheduled for 2012 but moved up following a problem with a pothole that forced two lengthy red flag stoppages during the Sprint Cup Series’ season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 14.

The parent International Speedway Corp. has contracted Lane Construction to repave DIS. The company has repaved several other ISC racetracks, including Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Richmond (Va.) International Raceway and Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

Target date for completion is Jan. 1, 2011. Speedweeks 2011 will kick off with the 49th annual Rolex 24 at Daytona Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race on Jan. 29-30 and conclude with the 53rd annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 20.

See you at Daytona in February!

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

NASCAR has announced that NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will use carburetor restrictor-plate openings of 1 1/32 inches for the July 3 event at Daytona International Speedway. The previous plate at Daytona last February was 63/64-inch. Monday’s announcement pertains only to next month’s Coke Zero 400 Powered . . . → Read More: Larger Restrictor Plates For Pepsi 400]]>

(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

NASCAR has announced that NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will use carburetor restrictor-plate openings of 1 1/32 inches for the July 3 event at Daytona International Speedway. The previous plate at Daytona last February was 63/64-inch. Monday’s announcement pertains only to next month’s Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola the last NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event on the current Daytona asphalt. The 2.5-mile, high-banked superspeedway will be repaved prior to the 2011 Daytona 500.

Each restrictor plate contains four openings which restrict air flow to the engine, thus slowing cars. Larger openings mean more air, and more speed. “We think this will be a needed boost due to the additional drag we’ve picked up since switching from a rear wing to a rear spoiler,” said NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton. Rule changes, announced Jan. 21, mandated switching from a wing mounted on the rear deck lid of NASCAR’s new car, back to a more traditional stock-car spoiler.

Carburetor restrictor plates are used only at Daytona and 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway. The 1 1/32-inch size openings will be the largest since the one-inch mandate in 1988, the first year the horsepower-reducing plates were mandated for yearly use in NASCAR Sprint Cup competition at Daytona. Teams used openings of 15/16-inch for this season’s spring race (April 25) at Talladega. That size was determined following a March 16 test at Talladega that helped answer several mechanical questions, among them, spoiler height and the restrictor-plate openings.

That should make for some interesting racing and drafting partners at Daytona in July!

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Bill France,Sr. was a visionary, a pioneer, and a natural born leader.  France was the guiding light for NASCAR from its inception in 1948 until he transferred power to his son in 1972.

France built the sport, shaped the sport, and grew the sport almost single-handed.  From his early days as a . . . → Read More: Bill France,Sr The #1 Inductee]]>

Bill France,Sr. was a visionary, a pioneer, and a natural born leader.  France was the guiding light for NASCAR from its inception in 1948 until he transferred power to his son in 1972.

France built the sport, shaped the sport, and grew the sport almost single-handed.  From his early days as a race car driver, “Big Bill”, as he was called, realized that there needed to be a single sanctioning body that could help the drivers, control unscrupulous promoters and guarantee the fans a great show.  After all, it was always about “the show”!

His idea for building his first superspeedway, The Daytona International Speedway, came from the old board tracks of the 20′s and 30′s, as well as his first impressions from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Mr. France want to build the first 180MPH speedway!

Through much hard work and leveraging the family to the hilt, the speedway was built.  In 1959 the very first Daytona 500 became history, and in true Bill France magical mystery, the finish was so close it took 3 days to declare a winner.  To France and NASCAR’s credit that additional press coverage “was just what the doctor ordered”!  A racing tradition was started!

Bill France,Sr.’s defining moment

Having established Bill France,Sr.’s claim to fame, his defining moment was the inaugural race at his brand new superspeedway, the 1969 Talledega 500.  Because of the larger track at Talladega, the speeds were significant higher and the tires that Goodyear brought to the track were having a high rate of failure.

The race car drivers united and decided to boycott the first race after two days of practice.  France told the  drivers that he was going have race Sunday.  The big names of NASCAR packed up their cars and headed home.  However, France did in fact stage his race on Sunday without all the big names of NASCAR in the field!

The 1969 Talladega 500 was “Big Bill” France’s defining moment!

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNCK!