Daytona

The track at a glance

Daytona International Speedway is in Daytona Beach, Florida, in the United States. Its main track is a 2.5-mile (4.023 km) tri-oval, banked at 31° in the turns, 18° on the tri-oval and 3° on the back straight. It opened in 1959, and the Daytona 500 is held there each February over 200 laps.

This page traces the road course used for the 24-hour sports car race. It is 5.729 km long with 12 turns and runs anticlockwise. The lap leaves the oval after the start, winds through the infield, then rejoins the banking and adds a chicane on the back straight.

The mix makes the road course unusual: cars need low drag for the long run on the banking, but enough grip for the slow infield corners.

A lap of Daytona, corner by corner

The road course has 12 official turns, but some of them run together. This guide follows eight key places around the lap. Their numbers match the map.

1. Into the infield

   Just after the start, the road course leaves the oval with a left-hander into the infield. A busy place on the first lap.

2. International Horseshoe

   A slow, long hairpin that turns the cars back towards the main grandstands.

3. The kink

   A short, quick change of direction between the two horseshoes.

4. West Horseshoe

   The second infield hairpin, which sends the cars back out towards the oval.

5. The banking

   The lap rejoins the oval and climbs onto the 31° banking of the first two oval turns.

6. The Bus Stop

   A chicane on the back straight that slows the cars before the second half of the banking.

7. Turns 3 and 4

   A long, flat-out run around the banking at the far end of the oval.

8. The tri-oval

   A gentle kink in the front straight, banked at 18°, in front of the main grandstands. The finish line is here.

Racing at Daytona

Racing in Daytona Beach began on the sand. The speedway was built to give it a permanent home.

• 1959The speedway opens, and the first Daytona 500 is held on the oval.
• 1962The road course hosts its first sports car race, a three-hour event.
• 1966The sports car race becomes a 24-hour race.
• 1987The fastest lap of the oval is set in qualifying at 210.364 mph (338.5 km/h).
• 2016A major rebuild of the grandstands is completed.

An oval with a road course inside

Banking lets cars carry far more speed through a corner than a flat track would. On the oval, that means the turns are taken almost flat out and the race is decided by slipstreaming in tight packs.

The road course borrows most of the oval and adds slow infield corners and a chicane, so it rewards a car that is fast on the banking and stable under braking. For more, read our guide to oval track design or our history of Grand Prix racing in the United States.

Ideas for your remaster

The Remaster button opens the traced layout in the designer. You can move any point and the lap time, speed trace and corner analysis update as you go. A few places to start:

Redesign the infield. The infield is where the road course is made. Can you build a faster, flowing section there instead?

Make it an oval. Delete the infield and the chicane and see what is left: a 2.5-mile superspeedway.

Name the corners. Group and name the turns in the designer, and they will show on your exports and share link.

Finish it properly. Add track width, kerbs, run-off and a pit lane so it reads like a real venue.

When you’re happy with it, share your version with its own link. The original stays here for the next person to remaster.

Frequently asked questions

Layout traced from OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via open-racetrack-db. Circuit facts: Wikipedia. RaceTrackDesigner is not affiliated with the circuit, its owners or any racing series.