Daytona International Speedway to Mine Asphalt for Souvenir Gold

The folks at Daytona International Speedway are getting ready to dig up some asphalt and find gold.

As workers began to take down the fence (right) around the high banks and do other preliminary work before the first repaving of the 2.5-mile speedway in more than 30 years, the facility's management also made plans to save enough of the old asphalt to meet the souvenir demands of fans and drivers alike.

Fans who showed their passion after Dale Earnhardt's historic 1998 Daytona 500 victory by digging up the infield turf may be interested to know that they can soon buy a piece of the track itself.

After winning the Coke Zero 400 Saturday night, Kevin Harvick set the tone when he said in victory lane: "I don't care so much about the trophy; I want some of the pavement from the start/finish line ..."

This is the asphalt of every Daytona 500 Earnhardt ever ran, as well as every dramatic moment of the last 32 years, including Richard Petty's sixth and seventh victories, and all of those by Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett and every other winner since 1979.

"This race track obviously is the most historic racetrack that we race on, and I think if that asphalt could talk, you can go back and look at all the stories," Harvick said in his winner's interview. "Any time you can win, though, whether it's new asphalt or old asphalt, it's always going to be the baddest place to win, and that's Daytona."



Share "Yes, we've gotten several requests from the drivers for asphalt and we're going to accommodate them" said Andrew Booth, Daytona's manager of media relations. As far as public sale, "fans who renewed tickets for the 2011 Daytona 500 are going to get the first pieces," he said. "It's included with their ticket for next year."

The asphalt is also going to be available for purchase by the general public through Jostens, a Minneapolis-based company far more famous for its school yearbooks and class rings than in marketing speedway pavement.

Meanwhile, before the new pavement goes down, there's a lot of preparation work, as anyone who has done home improvement knows.

So even though the repaving project at Daytona International Speedway began Monday, it will be August before the new construction begins, Booth said.

On Monday workers began removing 57 light poles, the safety fencing in the high-banked turns and 8,300 linear feet of SAFER barrier.

Once these accessories are removed, which should be later this week or early next week, the removal of the old asphalt will begin. All of the existing asphalt will be removed down to the original 52-year-old lime rock base, which will be leveled before the new asphalt goes down.

"Any time you can win, though, whether it's new asphalt or old asphalt, it's always going to be the baddest place to win, and that's Daytona."
-- Kevin Harvick The fencing and light poles are being removed in the high banked turns, but not along the backstretch or in the tri-oval, Booth said. "The construction machines have to run across the rim road above the turns," he said. "They hold the paving equipment. We need to reach over the wall on the high banks."

Although Daytona's famously bumpy turns will be smoother, the repaving will remain true to the original design of the track, which was built in the late 1950s and hosted its first Daytona 500 in 1959.

Since then, the speedway has been repaved only once, in 1978.

An estimated 50,000 tons of asphalt will be used to pave 1,435,000 square feet, or about 33 acres. The project is supposed to be completed by Jan. 1, well ahead of the races in February, including the Feb. 20 Daytona 500.