**If only these walls could talk**
**The secrets it would share**
"In The Beginning"
The first fireproof hotel built in 1940, opened by Albert Y. Hutchinson. Used
For An Air Raid Shelter during World War II..
December 14, 1947
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR)
was founded at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida. It was the first formal organization
for stock-car racing, a sport said to have begun with soupedup bootlegger hot rods during Prohibition.
Starting in 1953, the major automakers invested heavily in racing teams,
producing faster cars than ever before: good results on the stock-car circuit were
believed to mean better sales on the showroom floor. In 1957, however, rising costs and tightened
NASCAR rules forced the factories out of the sport, and the
modern era of the NASCAR superspeedway began.
(Bill France Sr. is the tallest in the back row.)
It All Started In The Sand On the Beach
and what is now called A1A
The Track Specifications & Layout
Location Daytona Beach, Florida
Opened 1902 (estimated)
Closed February 23, 1958
No Major Events were yet formed.
Road Course
Circuit Length 3.1 to 4.2 mi (5.0 to 6.7 km)
The course started at the north turn on the pavement of highway A1A (at 4511 South Atlantic Avenue).
A restaurantnamed "Racing's North Turn" now stands at that location. It went south two miles on
A1A (parallel to the ocean) to the end of the road, where the drivers accessed the beach at the
Beach Street approach (the south turn), went two miles north
on the sandy beach surface, and turned away from the beach at the north turn.
The lap length in early events was 3.2 miles, and it was lengthened to
4.2 miles in the late 1940s..