RELATED: Timeline of Dillon’s wreck at Daytona
JOLIET, Ill. — Daytona International Speedway track president Joie Chitwood III said Saturday that other than the necessary repairs, no changes were made to the fencing at Daytona in the wake of Austin Dillon‘s scary crash there in July.
Medical personnel evaluated 13 fans after Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet went airborne and slammed into the fence on the frontstretch of the 2.5-mile speedway during a final green-white-checkered finish.
Eight fans declined medical attention, four were evaluated on-site and one was transported to an area hospital following the completion of the Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
“We’ve re-installed all the appropriate poles, mesh fence, the cable, all those elements,” Chitwood said following a press conference at Chicagoland Speedway. “We completed that a couple of weeks after the event.
“We … went through an analysis with NASCAR, brought in our experts to review everything. (The fencing) did what it was supposed to; we went quickly to repairing it so that we’re ready for racing.”
The fencing at Daytona and other International Speedway Corp. properties was last upgraded in 2009, according to Chitwood.
Changes to the crossover areas, allowing foot-traffic flow between the grandstands and infield, were made following a similar incident involving Kyle Larson in an XFINITY Series event in 2013.
The $400 million “Daytona Rising” project, expected to be completed around next year’s Rolex 24 test in early January, includes changes that create slightly more distance between the fans and the race track while fencing off the area known as the ring road will remove foot traffic from the area.
“We felt good about where we are, but we wanted to get the rest of the property done,” Chitwood said. “So the other half of the property, with the setback and the height elevation of the first row, and with the catch fence we feel pretty good about going into next year.”
Approximately 15 additional feet now separate the first row of seats in the grandstands, although Chitwood said the actual distance might vary depending on location on the frontstretch. The lowest row of seats is also approximately 10 feet higher with the rebuild.
• With series sponsor Sprint scheduled to leave the sport after the 2016 season, Chitwood and his group at Daytona will be looking for sponsorship for what’s currently known as the Sprint Unlimited, the annual non-points event that kicks off Speedweeks each February.
Saturday, Chitwood and officials with BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products) announced that Can-Am is replacing Budweiser as the title sponsor of the two qualifying races that help set the field for the Daytona 500 next season. Can-Am is the motorcycle division of BRP.
“Obviously we were disappointed when Sprint chose not to come back,” he said. “For us, we’ve got to figure out what partner we’d like to be on that event. It never stops. Whether it’s the Sprint Unlimited or the Duel, we never stop figuring out what partner we’d like to be at Daytona.”