"Big Bill" France was on his way to Miami, Florida in 1934, as the story goes, to build a superspeedway in the southern United States. Traveling through the Daytona Beach area the France family encountered car problems when local mechanic Smokey Yunick showed up to lend a hand.

France decided Daytona Beach would be the perfect location for his track. He began promoting races on the beach and soon was well known by local officials as a mover and shaker.

"Big Bill" announced his plans to build the Daytona Beach Motor Speedway, now the Daytona International Speedway, in 1955 and ground was broken on November 25, 1957. The soil underneath the banked corners was dug from the infield of the track, and the large hole in the infield filled with water from the low water table and is now known as Lake Lloyd. The inaugural Daytona 500 took the green on February 22, 1959 before a crowd of 41,000 hardcore race fans.

The finish of that first race was too close to call, but Johnny Beauchamp went to victory lane and celebrated although the results were posted as “unofficial.”

Sixty-one hours later, Lee Petty was declared the winner in what appeared to be a dead heat between Petty and Beauchamp – with the lapped car of Joe Weatherly making it a three-wide finish at the checkered flag. A clip of news reel footage proved that Petty was the winner by a few feet.

The Daytona International Speedway has been the site of truimph and tragedy but is truly a magical place for fans and competitors alike.

"For a race driver, when you drive through that tunnel and into the infield at Daytona, it's like you've entered the gates of heaven," says 1989 Daytona 500 winner Darrell Waltrip. "If you roll onto the track at Daytona and don't get goose bumps, buddy, you ain't a racer."