Mammoth Blog

The evolution of the Daytona 500 changed dramatically the first season the "stock" cars rolled off the beach and onto the 2.5-mile, 31-degree banked superspeedway in 1959.

But how will the next half-century unfold? Will the drivers continue to battle on the weathered track where speeds reached such extreme and dangerous heights that NASCAR decided to "restrict" the air taken into the engines in 1987 to slow the cars down? Or will aerospace engineers enter into the equation and the Car of Today become the podrace of tomorrow?

"In the past 10 or 15 years, you see how technology has taken off with the Internet and I look at that," says Bobby Labonte, who ran his first 500 in 1993. "Do you see the crowd today? Hypothetically speaking, it's a now crowd. Everybody wants it now. In 50 years, will there be anybody in the stands at all? Will they be watching it on video or whatever and you sit there and watch it. Maybe you actually drive from your home and don't even go to the racetrack. Who knows?

"I have trouble making a plan for tomorrow, so I'm not really sure about 50 years from now, but I feel it will be different. I don't think it will be the same. I don't think we'll show up with a fuel burning car. That's for sure."

In the first full season of the "latest race car" at Daytona International Speedway, both the teams and sanctioning body have worked to make this vehicle as safe as possible. From the competition end, it's a constant battle to create a car that's equally safe and competitive. NASCAR president Mike Helton says fans haven't seen the last Daytona model.

"There will probably be two or three generations because this isn't the first time we've changed race cars and it won't be the last time," Helton said. "This is the most technologically driven ... cars that NASCAR has ever put together, and I think the results will be just the way we want them. But there will be other cars that come down that road. Fifty years from now, they will be talking about model changes."

Daytona wasn't always on the pole position for the NASCAR schedule. For 13 seasons prior to the Great American Race kicking off the year, the Cup tour ran on the road course at Riverside in California. But questionable weather combined with a later start to the season to allow for testing and the growing popularity of the race led NASCAR to bump up the Daytona 500 to the inaugural contest starting in 1982.

"It developed the inaugural event of the season position," Helton said. "I wasn't privy to all the strategy -- if there was one -- of making it what it ism but it's evolved into that today.

"The Indy 500 is in the middle of the season, but NASCAR has always been focused on a year-long season of events. There's no question that the Daytona 500 is our marquee race, and oh, by the way, it's at the start of the year, which helps you quite frankly launch a season. There's no question that a marquee event in any sport is significant to a sport.

"You launch that to continue to grow the sport and attract more people to it. I think that's a great opportunity for us. Then 50 years from now, we're standing here -- well, we might not be but somebody will be standing here -- talking about running the 100th annual Daytona 500, because there will be. I think there will be 100th Daytona 500 because of the strength of the sport.

Helton summed up his vision of the sport 50 years from now as "the 100th running of the Daytona 500."

"I think there's still room to grow," Helton said. "What I'm enjoying right now is absorbing the fact that we're getting ready to run the 50th annual Daytona 500. It's a major, major event. It's easy in 50 years or five decades to run its course and burn out. But significant major events survive all of that, and Daytona is one of those.

"The Daytona 500 has not burned itself out. It's not run its course. We're running the 50th anniversary. The biggest crowd is going to see this race -- hopefully on TV too, we know in person. And that's a great opening statement for the 2008 season for NASCAR."

It's likely that the cars, drivers and perhaps even the track will change over the next 50 years, but the names could remain the same. Grandsons and granddaughters of former winners like Earnhardt or Petty might still be racing, and a France or two could be calling the shots.

Kyle Busch, 22, the second-youngest driver to start the race on Sunday, isn't sure what the complexion of race might look like or whether he'll be behind the wheel to enjoy it.

"We'll probably be running spaceships around light poles," Busch said. "If my health was good enough I'd probably still race a little bit. If my reactions were still good, but I don't know. This sport still wears on you. It's hard to keep going in it for so long. I don't know how long I'll race all three or the double or whatever, but I have to slow it down sometime."

Defending two-time Cup champion and Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson feels the Daytona 500 is the event "our sport was founded on."

"It's what it was built on," Johnson said. "It was Bill France Sr.'s vision to build that superspeedway and have it be the race that it is today. It certainly is that.

"It's the only race that has a title. When I won the Daytona 500, it was announced in media interviews and other things -- I won a lot of other races -- but that's the one that had a title. People recognize that and register with that. It is our largest event. I'm happy to see the tradition there. I think the tradition is going to continue. The desire to win that race will never diminish. It's just going to stay at the top.

"The next 50 years for our sport, specific to Daytona, I think that our sport has done a great job of remembering the people that brought us here, the people that built the sport, made it what it is. And the venue, the track, Daytona, it made NASCAR what it is today. I really am proud of everyone before me, and look forward to doing my part to carry that tradition on." source