Daytona Rising a new experience for NASCAR fans

To describe the “Daytona Rising” project at NASCAR’s signature racetrack as a “grandstand renovation,” is to do it a serious injustice.

Daytona’s gleaming, newly renovated grandstand makes its full debut for Sunday’s Daytona 500. The goal is to make watching a race at Daytona similar to watching in a stadium. So it’s being called a “motorsports stadium.”

Groundbreaking for the project began two and a half years ago, one day before the green flag flew at the 2013 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Daytona Rising by the numbers

$400 million Daytona Rising cost

$3 million Cost to build Daytona International Speedway in 1958.

40 Escalators.

20 Steps, the most fans have to climb to get to the top row of the grandstands after walking out from the concourse.

46,000 Seats removed from the facility, dropping capacity to 101,500. Reserved seats for Sunday’s race are sold out.

$20 million Projected annual revenue increase to ISC from the renovated track, mostly from the more than 60 luxury suites.

1,400 Television screens throughout the grandstands.

11 Social areas (called “neighborhoods”)on the concourses that have wi-fi capability

474,480 Bolts used.

Five cool things about Daytona Rising

▪ The track’s five entrances are called “injectors.” Four of them have corporate sponsorship.

▪ All the seats were replaced, with their width increased to 20-21 inches, each with arm wrests and a cup holder.

▪ There is also a sports bar – called Harley J’s (after the Harley J. Earl Trophy that goes to the Daytona 500 winner), and an upscale Champion’s Club.

▪ Driver and fan safety was included. In reaction to Austin Dillon’s frightening crash along the frontstretch at the end of last year’s Coke Zero 400 that sent his car flying into the catch fence, the first row of seats have been moved back and higher off the ground. The track has also completed the installation of SAFER barriers along all of its walls after Kyle Busch was severely injured hitting an unprotected wall during an Xfinity race last February.

▪ The first event in the “stadium” was actually the Rolex 24 At Daytona Jan. 28-31.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Daytona Rising a new experience for NASCAR fans."