History lesson
Past, future on display at Daytona USA
Posted: Sunday February 14, 1999 09:29 PM
By Denise N. Maloof, CNN/SI
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It's late Sunday afternoon on International Speedway Boulevard, and you can still smell motor oil and scorched rubber.
The Cup cars shook the ground. Windows in the Benny Kahn media center trembled as 3,400-pound bullets roared off Turn 4 into the frontstretch, like split-second thunderstorms off the Atlantic.
Now, the thousands who have flocked to Daytona International Speedway's infield, camping on NASCAR-hallowed ground, are departing after post-race tailgate parties, their garbage sacked. VIPs are whisked away in limousines. The common man waits in traffic.
The faithful range from pot-bellied baby boomers to toddlers. Clothing that states a team or driver preference is almost mandatory. Fans who didn't have time for a pre-race visit, or have no traffic patience, head for Daytona USA, the next-door museum that explains how and why tourist-hardened Volusia County became the "World Center for Speed."
NASCAR's story is told here, in a hanger-sized building with a giant surround-sound theatre that opened in 1996. It begins with the Stanley Steamer that reached a top speed of 127.659 mph -- in 1906 -- and will end, after Monday-morning installation ceremonies, with Jeff Gordon's latest No. 24 Chevrolet.
Visitors enter through a mock-up of Daytona's double-barreled infield tunnel. Between figurative green and checkered flags is a replica of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr.'s Daytona Beach gas station and garage.
An ex-banker, he moved from Washington, D.C. in 1934 to pursue his amateur driving dreams -- glass cases of historic, glittery trophies, a cut-away primer of the evolution of racing tires, a retired Dale Jarrett Ford, where fans can compete against the clock on a pit stop, and photographs, memorabilia and artifacts like ex-great Tiny Lund's jersey.
The pilgrims gather: If anyone wants to explore the heritage of NASCAR, the Daytona 500 is a great place to start. David Taylor/Allsport |
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There's a full-scale re-creation of Daytona's 31-degree banks, plus a two-story suspended exhibit of how a Winston Cup car is assembled. Beginning from chassis at ground level, visitors gaze up to the roll cage and body one floor above, and, finally, at Gordon's rainbow-distinctive, sheet-metal car skin high in the hangar ceiling.
There's also the No. 20 Dyson-Riley and Scott Ford Can-Am Sports Car that won last Sunday's Rolex 24 endurance race, and the Harley J. Earl trophy. The latter has been engraved with the name, make and average speed of each Daytona 500 winner since the last two beach races in the late 1950s, and is the size of your kitchen stove. The winner receives a friendlier version that's replicated down to the sterling-silver miniature of the 1965 General Motors Firebird that crowns it.
But the racing fan's real 1999 Valentine sits in the outer lobby, beyond security guards and gift-shop frenzy.
It's a candy-red Chevrolet Monte Carlo; a concept vehicle that doesn't resemble anything in a showroom or NASCAR garage. Even don't-talk to-me-about-anything-but-Ford fans might coo over this.
"Damn, that is sharp," says someone in the throng outside protective velvet ropes.
"That's the new car, eh?" someone else says
This Monte Carlo is sleeker and skinnier than the current body style in racing circulation. Its display placard identifies a modified V-6 engine and four-speed automatic transmission under the hood. A ghosted numeral 3 is second-glance visible on each door panel.
"An automatic?" someone says, in horror.
It's called the "Intimidator," by the way. In someone else's honor.
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