Adjustments made for Coke Zero 400 weekend during $400 million makeover
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Consider it a sneak preview.
When NASCAR teams and fans show up for this weekend’s Coke Zero 400 at the sport’s most iconic track, they will see a Daytona International Speedway in the final and crucial stages of its $400 million makeover, called Daytona Rising.
From impressive new grandstands and modern amenities for fans to improved SAFER barriers for the competitors, it’s all full throttle ahead.
“People will notice just how immense it is,” Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood said of the remodeled and redesigned outer façade and entry that will greet fans.
“It’s gigantic, and it’s cool. The changes are so visible and people can see it and that’s what’s going to excite everybody, that the opening is just around the corner, a short seven months to get there.”
Fans will notice what’s been made over, and what’s in the process.
Three of the five massive new entryways called “fan injectors” will be up and running with new escalators, elevators, concession stands and restrooms.
While there will be only 50,000 grandstand seats for Sunday’s Coke Zero 400, they are all the new wider, more comfy versions. And 10,000 of those — located in Turn 4 — have never been used before.
Drivers such as Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon and Joey Logano, who have previewed the various stages of construction and sampled the view from the grandstands, have all impressively declared, “there is no bad seat.”
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The press box and spotters stand will be smaller, temporary versions of themselves as work continues on a new tower. Timing and scoring will move across the track to the Daytona 500 Club in the infield. And the green flag will wave from a spotters stand at the start/finish line that stands alone against a backdrop of grandstand construction.
“It won’t be the most pretty Daytona International Speedway that we’ve ever had, but it’s just a step in the process to get us to the finished project in January of 2016,” Chitwood said. “So I know our fans will work with us. They understand this was the most critical window to get things done.
“So the Coke Zero will be a little bit of ‘pardon our dust’ opportunity, but it also shows just how much work we’ve gotten done so far.”
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Equally as significant as the improved fan experience is the work completed for the competitors. While the famed 2.5-mile superspeedway surface remains the same, DIS has installed additional SAFER barriers, as promised, following Kyle Busch‘s bad crash in February’s season-opening XFINITY Series race at Daytona. Specifically the barriers were installed on the inside of Turn 1 and an additional 20,000 square feet of asphalt was added to extend the skid pad.
“I can say really for all tracks, this is starting that cycle of repeat visits so Daytona has really stepped up and talked to all of the competitors about where you’ll see changes heading in for this year with the goal of ’16, it’ll be SAFER everywhere,” NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday.
“We feel really good about the progress that’s been made and the changes you’ll see at each track going forward where there will be some solutions in place. And then in ’16, you’ll see more and more of it.
“The dialogue with the competitors has been terrific in this regard and certainly something that we said needed to happen, and we’re happy to see what’s taken place, especially at Daytona, leading into this weekend.”
The Coke Zero 400 marks the traditional mid-point of the NASCAR season, the first time teams return to tracks for the second half of the schedule. And this year, that means a return of NBC as a broadcast partner with Sunday’s race marking the first race telecast for the network in a 10-year deal (7:45 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM).
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Chitwood says DAYTONA Rising in on schedule and on budget for completion in time for Daytona Speedweeks 2016 and promises that while the facility has been transformed, the history of the speedway is intact and the intense excitement produced on the track remains unchanged.