Through an incredible circumstance (a team honoring my late son on their race car) I ended up at Daytona for the Rolex 24 over the weekend. I had been to Daytona last March but not for a race and only for a couple of hours, the 24 gave me a few days to spend at the facility and I came away completely impressed. The main grandstand is over 3/4 of a mile long and seats over 100,000. What's impressive about it is the quality of the amenities. They completely rebuilt it in 2016 and it is to the quality, and arguably beyond that, of an NFL stadium, clean and spacious with many food vendors, bars, and proper souvenir stores. The bathrooms were clean and also featured clear flow from the stalls to the sinks and out to keep the lines moving. For the Rolex, which uses the infield road course, there weren't that many people in the grandstands at any one point, though it probably had a few thousand in there for the start of the race when I visited. Much better than the oversized bleachers of most modern ovals.
The infield general admission is where you spend most of your time, there are bleachers for the infield hairpins and then coming out of NASCAR turn 2 and the rest is standing access, unless you bring a chair. The Fan Zone has a great setup where its boundaries are defined by the garages, which have windows for viewing and small pass throughs to hand drivers items to autograph. For the Rolex, with open garage access for fans, this was less necessary, but appears to be a reasonable compromise for the more locked-down NASCAR weekends. There's also viewing decks on top of the garages and a big screen to watch the race from there if you're so inclined. The entire oval is lit, but they tend to dial it back for the Rolex as the infield lighting is not as robust and the transitions from light to dark could be dangerous at speed.
I've been to plenty of race tracks at this point, but this really feels "big time", especially in comparison to New Hampshire or Pocono that can both feel stuck in the early 1990s. There is some talk that the Jaguars could temporarily play here in the grass on the front stretch if their stadium gets renovated. I might have balked at that before but now it makes sense and I think would work fine. I always recommend going to races, but Daytona is a must-see venue, a monument to speed.
The infield general admission is where you spend most of your time, there are bleachers for the infield hairpins and then coming out of NASCAR turn 2 and the rest is standing access, unless you bring a chair. The Fan Zone has a great setup where its boundaries are defined by the garages, which have windows for viewing and small pass throughs to hand drivers items to autograph. For the Rolex, with open garage access for fans, this was less necessary, but appears to be a reasonable compromise for the more locked-down NASCAR weekends. There's also viewing decks on top of the garages and a big screen to watch the race from there if you're so inclined. The entire oval is lit, but they tend to dial it back for the Rolex as the infield lighting is not as robust and the transitions from light to dark could be dangerous at speed.
I've been to plenty of race tracks at this point, but this really feels "big time", especially in comparison to New Hampshire or Pocono that can both feel stuck in the early 1990s. There is some talk that the Jaguars could temporarily play here in the grass on the front stretch if their stadium gets renovated. I might have balked at that before but now it makes sense and I think would work fine. I always recommend going to races, but Daytona is a must-see venue, a monument to speed.
