Countdown: Florida

From the palms of Palm Beach to the pines of Pensacola and the Spanish moss of Saint Augustine, Florida has been a destination of choice ever since Ponce de Leon began his quest for the fountain of youth.

Stephen Foster penned a piece about the old folks at home on the Suwanee River. It's where the boys are, according to Connie Francis. Will Smith found a reason to rap about Miami, and Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon couldn't stop singing about a Tallahassee lassie.

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It's also been a destination for speed for more than a century, ever since Arthur MacDonald reached a world-record 104 mph on the hard-packed beach sand on a January day in 1905.

Best behind the wheel

• Fireball Roberts, Apopka

Given his nickname for his pitching ability as a youngster, Edward Glenn Roberts Jr. found himself better suited for racing, and his star shone brightly for the short time he was in the sport.

At 19, he wrecked on the ninth lap of a Modified race on the old Daytona beach course, an inauspicious debut to be sure. However, he more than made up for that over the next 16 seasons, winning 33 races, 35 poles and posting 122 top-10 finishes in 202 starts.

Perhaps the greatest driver never to win a NASCAR title, Roberts came closest in 1950, when he won his first race at Hillsboro and finished second in the standings to Bill Rexford.

He ran more than half of the races on the schedule only twice in his career, but when he showed up, he was always one of the favorites. In 1956, he won five races, then eight more in 1957. But his greatest season might have been in 1958, when he entered only 10 races -- and won six. In fact, he finished out of the top 10 only once, and that was because his Chevrolet suffered a gas leak at Nashville, leaving him 30th.

Roberts captured the majority of his wins on dirt bullrings, but his real forte was NASCAR's new superspeedways. He mastered Darlington, winning the 1958 and 1963 Southern 500s. In 1962, he became the first driver to sweep both of Daytona's races in one season when he won the Daytona 500 and Firecracker 250. He also won the first race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Roberts started out with a victory at Augusta in November of 1963 -- which counted toward the 1964 season -- but transmission problems sidelined him at Daytona, and he crashed out of the race at Atlanta. After running second to Fred Lorenzen at Darlington, Roberts was looking forward to the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he had sat on the pole four times.

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However, a fiery Lap 7 accident involving Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson left Roberts with severe burns over much of his body. He survived for 37 days before he succumbed to pneumonia on July 2, 1964.

Other noteworthy drivers from Florida

• Red Farmer, Hialeah: Made his NASCAR debut in 1953 and had two Busch Series starts at age 59; more than 700 feature wins in 50-plus seasons of racing

• Bobby Johns, Miami: Pontiac ace scored victories at Atlanta (1960) and Bristol (1962)

• Joe Nemechek, Naples: 1992 Busch Series champ has four Cup wins, including Kansas in 2004

• Shorty Rollins, Pensacola: Won a 150-lapper in 1958 at New York's Busti third-mile oval

• Marshall Teague, Daytona Beach: A two-time winner on the old Daytona Beach course, Teague was killed testing an Indy car at Daytona in 1959

• Rick Wilson, Bartow: Five top-five finishes in 206 career starts, including second in the 1988 Pepsi Firecracker 400

• LeeRoy Yarbrough, Jacksonville: 1969 Daytona 500 winner had 14 career victories, including 10 for owner Junior Johnson

We wish ...

Drag racing legend Don Garlits had become a NASCAR driver.

A 10-time American Hot Rod Association world champion, Tampa-born "Big Daddy" was no stranger to speed, becoming the first drag racer to break the 200- and 250-mph barriers on the timed quarter-mile. Just imagine how fast Garlits could go if they took the restrictor plates off at Talladega.

Daytona International Speedway Credit: Autostock

Keeping it on the track

• Daytona International Speedway

Since hosting the first Daytona 500 in 1959, the "World Center of Racing" hosts nearly every type of motorsports, including NASCAR, sports cars, motorcycles, go-karts and vintage sports cars. The first high-banked superspeedway on the NASCAR circuit features corners banked at 31 degrees, which caused driver Jimmy Thompson to quip, "There have been other tracks that separated the men from the boys. This is the track that will separate the brave from the weak once the boys are gone."

Richard Petty has 10 career Cup victories at Daytona -- including seven Daytona 500 wins -- to lead all drivers. Cale Yarborough has nine, and David Pearson eight.

However, if you combine Dale Earnhardt's wins in Daytona qualifying races, the Budweiser Shootout, Busch Series and IROC to his Cup total, that comes out to an amazing 34 trips to Daytona's Victory Lane.

• Homestead-Miami Speedway

Opened as a flat 1.5-mile, four-corner oval in 1995, Homestead-Miami underwent a major reconstruction in time for the 2003 season finale. The corners were rounded and changed to include a graduated banking, ranging from 18 degrees at the bottom to 20 degrees at the top.

The track, which seats 65,000, also includes a 2.21-mile road course. In 2005, the speedway added a state-of-the-art lighting system, allowing the Ford Championship Weekend races to finish under the lights for the first time.

Gone but not forgotten

• Beach and Road Course, Daytona Beach

Imagine a Florida beachfront without miles and miles of condominiums and hotels. That was the scene of Daytona Beach in 1936, when the first beach-road race was held on a 4.1-mile stretch of beach and State Road A1A that ran parallel to the ocean. Red Byron won the first NASCAR-sanctioned event in 1949, while Paul Goldsmith took the final checkered flag in 1958, as Daytona International Speedway was ready for business by the beginning of 1959.

Ponce Inlet's Beach Street is near the location of the course's former south turn.

Other tracks which have hosted NASCAR races

• Five Flags Speedway, Pensacola: Herb Thomas piloted a Hudson to a 1953 victory at this half-mile dirt oval, which is still in operation

• Golden Gate Speedway, Tampa: Richard Petty won $780 in 1962 in a 200-lapper on the dirt third-mile

• Jacksonville Speedway Park, Jacksonville: African-American Wendell Scott won in 1963 at the dirt half-mile

• Palm Beach Speedway, West Palm Beach: Herb Thomas was king of this dirt half-mile, winning four times

• Titusville-Cocoa Speedway, Titusville: Fireball Roberts won the only race run on the runways of the Ti-Co Airport

A word from our sponsor

• Office Depot, Delray Beach

Founded in 1986, Office Depot is one of the world's largest sellers of office products and an industry leader in every distribution channel, including stores, direct mail, contract delivery, the Internet and business-to-business electronic commerce.

The Checker's/Rally's restaurant chain is based in Tampa, while NASCAR's corporate headquarters are in Daytona Beach, the site of DAYTONA USA.