‘Sacred date’
There was a time when moving Daytona’s summertime race away from the national holiday wasn’t even up for discussion. NASCAR and Speedway founder Bill France Sr. planted the race there originally as a replacement for an Indy-car race that never materialized, but he quickly realized its popularity and future potential, and the tradition continued after his son took over the business.
“As I recall, there was little conversation about moving the date. It was as sacred as the Daytona 500 date,” says Robin Braig, who was president of Daytona International Speedway from 2002-2010. “I never thought, back then, that they would give up a holiday weekend at Daytona.
“I remember Bill France Jr. reminding my sales team, the Fourth of July and NASCAR in Daytona was ‘as American and patriotic as apple pie.’”
Along with all the tradition and whatever meaning you might attach to the July race weekend, perhaps best of all, it was highly profitable for many of those involved.
Before joining the Speedway’s parent company, International Speedway Corp., Braig worked in marketing for Anheuser-Busch. He oversaw A-B’s NASCAR effort, including the marketing of Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 25 Budweiser-branded team with driver Ken Schrader.
“The July race was a beer marketer’s dream event,” Braig says. “It was a major sports event on a holiday weekend in the middle of peak beer-selling months. And it was in Florida. We also had one of the best beer salesmen ever — Kenny Schrader — in our arsenal. He already knew every bartender in town.”
Locally, however, the area’s tourism promoters have long suggested they’d be better served with moving the race to a different slot on the calendar. The loyal fan base that still attends races will come to the 400 regardless of where it sits, but luring other family vacationers to the beach, on or around the Fourth of July, would be easier without working around a major auto race.
The move could benefit all parties, according to Kate Holcomb, director of communications for the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“It creates an opportunity for us to gear more messaging for the big Independence Day weekend to families, who will be coming during our strong summer season,” she says. “And it will give race fans and other visitors a solid reason to plan their Daytona Beach-area vacations for August, a month that offers additional (hotel) capacity.
“We look forward to seeing success in both time frames.”
Going forward, to late-August of next year and wherever future schedules find the 400, the race community will adjust and show up at the scheduled time. But it could be a while before NASCAR’s elders stop getting the urge to pack for Daytona Beach as the Fourth of July approaches.
“Always, from the time I was a kid until now, the Fourth of July meant you were in Daytona,” Wood says. “I went down there as a kid. I went as an adult. This year when I go, I’m a grandfather. Been going down there a long time.
“It’s gonna seem really odd not doing that next year. But I get it, that’s just the way it worked out.”
The 400, through the years
April 4, 1959: Less than two months after the first Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway, Bill France Sr. hosts a pair of 40-lap USAC races for Indy-style cars, three months before his scheduled USAC race on the Fourth of July at Daytona. But the open-wheel cars aren’t suited for Daytona’s high banks and speed, and veteran racer George Amick is killed in a crash on the final lap of the first race. Plans for a USAC race are scrapped and a second NASCAR date for Daytona will fill the void.
July 4, 1959: Hometown racing hero Fireball Roberts wins the inaugural Firecracker 250, driving a Pontiac built by fellow Daytonan Smokey Yunick. Fireball was nicknamed not for a race car fire.......but for his fast ball in younger years as a ball player.......and is
buried in a cemetary just East of the Daytona Speedway.
It is one of the stops of the bus tour run by the living Legends of Auto Racing.
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/e...h-florida.html
July 4, 1963: The race is lengthened by 60 laps and 150 miles, and Fireball Roberts also wins the first Firecracker 400.
July 4, 1984: Richard Petty edges Cale Yarborough and makes the Firecracker 400 his 200th (and final) career win, in front of President Ronald Reagan.
July 2, 1988: The race moves from the Fourth of July to the first Saturday of July. Bill Elliott wins the final 400 with “Firecracker” in the name.
Oct. 17, 1998: The 400 becomes a nighttime race after the installation of lights at Daytona. The first nighttime 400, however, is postponed until October due to summertime wildfires in Volusia County.
July 5, 2008: After Pepsi’s 23-year run, Coca Cola takes over as presenting sponsor of the 400.
July 6, 2019: The 400 ends its 61-year run as a “Fourth of July” event. Next year in 2020, the race moves to late August.
.....and you heard it here first on TampaRacing.com
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