Region’s largest hospital organization to name Turn 1 injector
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Daytona International Speedway proudly unveiled another major corporate sponsor of its Daytona Rising redevelopment on Thursday morning, welcoming Florida Hospital as a founding partner. Its brand will hold prime naming rights on Injector Number One of the speedway’s $400 million remodeling — “re-imagining” project.
International Speedway Corporation Chief Executive Officer Lesa France Kennedy made the announcement outside the iconic track Thursday. The largest hospital organization in the Daytona Beach region — with 23 hospitals statewide — joins Toyota as the first two founding partners of Daytona Rising.
Florida Hospital will have naming rights on the huge fan injector nearest Turn 1. It also will brand and run all of the property’s first aid centers and the infield care center as the facility’s exclusive healthcare provider.
The company has a relationship with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the NBA’s Orlando Magic — something Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood says also makes Florida Hospital a natural fit with NASCAR’s most famous race track.
“We’re excited to welcome them to the family,” Chitwood said. “And we are really excited about where we are. This project has truly generated the publicity we hoped for, and it’s a unique project to go from race track to motorsports stadium.
“We’ve got a lot of positive news, the fact we’ll have 40,000 seats available for next year’s Daytona 500 gives fans a little sneak preview. I couldn’t be more pleased with where we are.”
The corporate interest in partnering with the speedway has been significant. The construction project is on course to be fully completed by 2016, and Chitwood says he is thrilled with the progress and what it says for the track and the sport in general.
“We still have a year and three months until opening for 2016, and we’ve announced two partners for injectors (Toyota was announced in February.) We’ve done our topping out ceremony. I do believe in the next month or so we’ll have an announcement for maybe a new event we’ll add for 2016.
“I am really pleased with where we are and what we have in front of us. It reinforces that NASCAR is a great spot for partners like Toyota and Florida Hospital. We’re planting our flag. We’re not going anywhere, we’re setting up this property for the next 50 plus years, and the fact we’re seeing great interest on the corporate side just reinforces this is the right thing to be doing at the right time.”
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