General
Daytona Int'l Speedway week 10 repaving update
Jeff Burton Checks In On The Daytona Repave Project NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Star Buries Time Capsule, Grades Pit Road DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jeff Burton is accustomed to driving down pit road at Daytona International Speedway in his No. 31 ...
Published: Sep 9, 2010, 9:48 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Jeff Burton Checks In On The Daytona Repave Project
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Star Buries Time Capsule, Grades Pit Road
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jeff Burton is accustomed to driving down pit road at Daytona International Speedway in his No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet looking for his Richard Childress Racing pit crew for four tires and Sunoco fuel.
On Wednesday, he got a different perspective of pit road from a Caterpillar grader. Burton visited the "World Center of Racing" and graded a portion of pit road, which along with the entire 2.5-mile tri-oval, apron and skid pad, is being repaved for only the second time in track history.
"It's not hard to just move dirt, but it's hard to put it where it's supposed to be," Burton said of his grading experience.
Burton, along with President Joie Chitwood III, also buried a time capsule and delivered a progress report to the local media on the Daytona Repave project, which began immediately after the Coke Zero 400 Powered By Coca-Cola on Monday, July 5.
Among the items placed in the time capsule were:
* Tickets from 2010 Daytona International Speedway events including the 52nd annual Daytona 500 and the Coke Zero 400 Powered By Coca-Cola, the final race on the old asphalt
* Die-cast cars including Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet that won the Subway Jalapeno 250 Powered By Coca-Cola NASCAR Nationwide Series race and Burton's No. 31 Caterpillar car
* Newspapers from the Daytona Beach News-Journal including their special Daytona Repave section
* Business card of Lane Construction's John Rauer, the project manager on the Daytona Repave
* Sprint Blackberry phone
* Press releases, brochures and photos
Burton, whose lone Daytona NASCAR Sprint Cup win came in July 2000, took a tour of the facility before burying the time capsule and grading pit road.
"It's really cool to be here," said Burton, who added he would like to come back to Daytona someday to dig up the time capsule. "The history of this race track and the France family actually building this track with their own hands and (now) seeing it reconstructed, it's pretty cool. This track is going to make racing incredible. What you're going to see is three wide and two wide all the time.
"The technology in the asphalt and the technology in the grading makes the track so smooth and makes so much grip that you're not going to be afraid to put it three wide. You're going to be able to put that car where ever you want to put it."
Burton knows that a victory in prestigious season-opening Daytona 500 is the ultimate prize in motorsports. But to win the first Daytona 500 on new asphalt only raises the stakes for him.
"There will be a lot of pressure and prestige about winning the first race on the new asphalt because this track is synonymous with NASCAR history," Burton said. "To be the first one to win at the new Daytona, especially the Daytona 500, is going to mean a great deal.
"You're going to see a lot of teams working very hard to get what they need to be competitive here. We're already looking at how do we run here. What do we do different? We were building race cars that were made to handle well and not necessary go as fast as they could go. It was all about making down force and getting through the corners. All of that is out the window now.
"Matter of fact, we had a meeting last week about how to build a car to win the Daytona 500 with this new material. The first race of the Chase hasn't even started yet and we're (already) thinking about the Daytona 500. That's how famous this race is."
About the Daytona Repave: Lane Construction, which repaved other ISC race tracks including Talladega Superspeedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Richmond International Raceway and Darlington Raceway, will use an estimated 50,000 tons of asphalt to repave more than 1.4 million square feet of Daytona International Speedway and has a target completion date of Jan. 1, 2011.
Speedweeks 2011 will kick off with the 49th annual Rolex 24 At Daytona GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race on Jan. 29-30 and conclude with the 53rd annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 20, the prestigious season-opening event to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Race fans can view the progression of the historic repaving project from a section of the Oldfield Grandstands, which will open free to the public. Track tours will also be available through attraction admission to Daytona 500 Experience.
Daytona International Speedway also is posting updates on the project at www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/repave.
-source: dis
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article CAN: Seires Mirabel season finale preview
Next article STCC: Hartmann Honda Jyllandsringen summary
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The most unexpected driver and team breakups in modern NASCAR Cup history
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
The most unexpected driver and team breakups in modern NASCAR Cup history
Dale Earnhardt Jr. met with Days of Thunder 2 writer: "Anything you need, call me"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Daytona II
Dale Earnhardt Jr. met with Days of Thunder 2 writer: "Anything you need, call me"
Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants more drivers hosting podcasts
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants more drivers hosting podcasts
More from
Richard Childress Racing
Winners and losers from NASCAR Cup at Charlotte after dramatic finish
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
Winners and losers from NASCAR Cup at Charlotte after dramatic finish
Jesse Love wins dramatic NASCAR O'Reilly race at Gateway
NASCAR O'Reilly
NASCAR O'Reilly
Gateway
Jesse Love wins dramatic NASCAR O'Reilly race at Gateway
Lucas Oil to retire blue paint scheme in honor of Kyle Busch, with one exception
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Lucas Oil to retire blue paint scheme in honor of Kyle Busch, with one exception
Latest news
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
20 min
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
55 min
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 1 h
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
Daniel Suarez will return to Spire Motorsports for 2027 NASCAR Cup season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
1 h
Daniel Suarez will return to Spire Motorsports for 2027 NASCAR Cup season
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 Can-Am drivers
General
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 Can-Am drivers
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe