NASCAR families who jam the stands at stock-car races around the country can feel the thrill of racing at the Daytona 500 Experience. Known as the Official Attraction of NASCAR, this Florida icon allows you to sense the speed, hear the thunder, and view amazing visuals.
Lesa France Kennedy, granddaughter of NASCAR founder Bill France, wanted to create an attraction that appealed to all ages and where fans could actually touch and feel the sport. The result — the 60,000-square-foot, Daytona 500 Experience (formerly called Daytona USA), which opened in 1996.
The Experience is located at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, a town on the northeast coast of Florida known for its white, sandy beaches. The attraction offers something for everyone, as Wanda Nelson of Apopka, Fla., found when she visited with her four grandchildren, ranging in age from 6 to 12.
Start with a pit stop
The whole family can test their pit-crew potential at the Ford 16-Second Pit Stop Challenge, seeing how fast they can change the tire on driver Ricky Rudd’s Motorcraft Ford. The younger kids can help roll the tire, wash the windshield, and start the time clock. The pit crew’s record is 4.7 seconds. If you beat it, you earn free passes to Acceleration Alley for your entire group. Even if you don’t beat the record, you’ll still find out how very difficult it is to accomplish just a fraction of what a crew normally does during a pit stop.
Height requirements kept Nelson’s younger grandchildren from some activities, but Khyla, 6, and Khyree, 7, recovered from their disappointment in Acceleration Alley. They rode as passengers while their older siblings, Keymani, 11, and Kia, 12, took the wheels of scaled-down replicas of stock cars. Motion, audio, and video in this theme park-like ride make crashing, passing, and tackling the high banks of the speedway very realistic.
Teens and tweens with competitive genes love Acceleration Alley and especially like to beat their grandparents. Don’t even think about exaggerating your race car driving prowess after this experience. Everyone gets a printout of what place they finished and how fast they were going. Eleven-year-old Christian Grindell beat his grandfather in the race and plans to frame his printout.
Other activities not to miss include Daytona Dream Laps, a motion simulator ride also based on NASCAR’s premier race, the Daytona 500. Everyone is a passenger here, but that doesn’t lessen the bumps, dips, and the stomach-churning speed. Another motion simulator ride, Toyota Tundra’s Thunder Road, reproduces the excitement of racing in a truck and includes a 360-degree flip.
Tour the track
Taking the 30-minute open-air tram tour of the Daytona International Speedway appealed to everyone in Nelson’s party. “I didn’t realize how steep (with 31-degree banked turns) the track was,” says Nelson. “I always thought it was flat.”
Besides going around the 2.5 mile, tri-oval racetrack, and behind the scenes in the garage and pit area, the tram stops at Gatorade Victory Lane. Get out, whoop, holler, and turn a somersault to play the part of a winning NASCAR driver. It makes for a great photo opp.
“I like to walk around Victory Lane, knowing that the winning drivers have stood there,” says Michael Sweeney, 15. He also recommends the Fourth Turn Grill’s burgers and fries.
Back at the Experience, NASCAR enthusiasts can test their racing knowledge at the Trilon Trivia Tower and ask laser images of their favorite driver a question at Heroes of the Track.
The Goodyear Heritage of Daytona history walk takes guests back to the beginning when cars raced on the beach at Daytona and brings them up to the present with NASCAR. “It’s hard to get kids to read plaques, but the (3-D) IMAX movie put it in visual content for kids. Visual is what they understand nowadays,” says Liz Grindell, grandmother to Christian.
Nelson felt very safe with her grandchildren at the Daytona 500 Experience. Caring staffers exhibit their southern hospitality by pointing you in the right direction and being super friendly. Two employees noticed that Nelson’s younger grandchildren didn’t get to do as much as the older ones so they gave them free tokens to play video games.
Ed Sweeney, grandfather to Michael Sweeney, urges you to make a day of it at the Daytona 500 Experience, “It’s affordable, it’s fun, so come and try it.”
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