| Daytona Beach Street Course | |
| |
| Race Information | |
|---|---|
| Number of times held | TBD |
| First Race | 1950 |
| Most Wins (drivers) | Multiple (1) |
| Most Wins (constructors) | Multiple (1) |
| Most Wins (manufacturers) | Multiple (1) |
| Circuit Length | 6.598 km (4.100 mi) |
| Race Length | 300.30 km (186.60 mi) |
| Laps | 46 |
| Last Race (1951) | |
| Pole Position | |
| Guy Pierce · Bernard Payne (Hudson) · 98.409 mph | |
| Podium | |
| 1. Emmett Newton · Lucky Hornick (Hudson) | |
| 2. Guy Pierce · Bernard Payne (Hudson) | |
| 3. Luther Young · Roy Shelton (Hudson) | |
Round of Daytona Beach
The Round of Daytona Beach was a National Stock Car Series (NSCS)-sanctioned race that was held on July 4 from 1950 through 1958 on the streets of Daytona Beach, Florida. The 1950 running of the event was the sixth race in NSCS history, and was the fifth race officially announced by series organizer Elliott Crawford. The last race was held in 1958; due to the logistical difficulties of organizing a race on both the beach and highway A1A, the series moved racing to the newly-constructed Daytona International Speedway in 1959.
The race name was not formalized until 1970, when the NSCS announced a formal naming guideline for all races; the July 4 race on Daytona Beach was officially named the Round of Daytona Beach to distinguish it as being at a different track from the nearby Daytona International Speedway.
History[edit | edit source]
Racing had been present on the streets and sands of Daytona Beach since at least 1935; the city of Daytona sanctioned several racing events with local promoters, eventually finding financial and popular success by the end of the decade. World War II put racing at the beach on hold from 1942 through 1945, but it returned with stock car racing in February 1946. The course would host racing as often as four times per year, and attracted many of the early pioneers of professional stock car racing like Elliott Crawford, Amos Thompson, and Lucky Hornick.
Crawford organized the National Stock Car Series in 1948 and began organizing a calendar of races for the new sanctioning body; he negotiated with officials at Daytona Beach to allow his fledgling series to promote the July race as part of Fourth of July celebrations, an arrangement they agreed to after the 1949 Fourth of July race. The July race would be promoted by Crawford's National Stock Car Series from 1950 until the final race in 1958. The race length varied between 160 and 300 miles over years, with the 300-mile distance occurring in 1955 and 1958; the 1955 event was cut short by four laps due to high tide.
By 1953, the large crowds and the difficult logistics of planning a street race around the tides (coupled with the fact that the race required the closure of highway A1A) led to Elliott Crawford to plan a permanent speedway to host racing events; by 1955, plans for Daytona International Speedway were taking shape, and construction began in earnest in late 1956. The last NSCS race at the beach course was held on July 4, 1958.
Race Winners[edit | edit source]
| Year | Date | No. | Driver | Team/Owner | Manufacturer | Distance | Race Time | Average Speed | Track | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laps | Miles (km) | |||||||||
| 1950 | July 4 | 38 |  Glenn Barker
|
Victor Sellers | Mercury | 39 laps | 159.9 mi (257.3 km) | 2:06:57 | 75.573 mph | Daytona Beach Street Course |
| 1951 | July 4 | 777 | Emmett Newton
|
Lucky Hornick | Hudson | 46 laps | 188.6 mi (303.52 km) | 2:24:47 | 78.590 mph | |