The Daytona 500 Experience, formerly known as Daytona USA, was an interactive motorsports attraction and museum located at

Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR as well as its season opening event. In addition to NA ...

Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately nort ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Intrinsically linked to the

Daytona 500 The Daytona 500 is a NASCAR Cup Series motor race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is the first of two Cup races held every year at Daytona, the second being the Coke Zero Sugar 400, and one of three ...

, the museum primarily focused on exhibits related to

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

. The attraction also included exhibits related to the

Daytona 200 The Daytona 200 is an annual motorcycle road racing competition held in early spring at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The race was founded in 1937 when it was sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Associati ...

motorcycle race, the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

, as well as the Daytona Beach & Road Course. The attraction opened in 1996. In 2005, the site was one of the finalists to host the

NASCAR Hall of Fame The NASCAR Hall of Fame, located in Charlotte, North Carolina, honors drivers who have shown expert skill at NASCAR driving, all-time great crew chiefs and owners, broadcasters and other major contributors to competition within the sanctioning ...

. After losing the hall of fame bid, due to high operating costs and low attendance, parent company

International Speedway Corporation International Speedway Corporation (ISC) was a corporation whose primary business is the ownership and management of motorsports race tracks. ISC was founded by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. in 1953 for the construction of Daytona International ...

announced on November 6, 2010 that the attraction would no longer be open to the public but would be available only for private functions. After being closed to the public for four years, it was announced in 2014 that the

Motorsports Hall of Fame of America The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) is hall of fame that honors motorsports competitors and contributors from the United States from all disciplines, with categories for Open Wheel, Stock Cars, Powerboats, Drag Racing, Motorcycles, Sp ...

would relocate to the site. The new expanded and refurbished museum opened in February 2017.

History

Through 1995,

featured a modest two-story visitors’ center outside of the oval's fourth turn. The first floor of the visitors' center housed the ticket office and a small sampling of racing memorabilia; the second floor was home to a wall of photographs of previous

winners. The Speedway also offered track tours on open-air trams. In mid- to late-1995, the visitors center was closed and a new destination-style, interactive museum was designed to take its place. The attraction opened in July 1996 during the 1996

Pepsi 400 The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is an annual NASCAR Cup Series stock car race at Daytona International Speedway. First held in 1959, the event consists of 160 laps, , and is the second of two major stock car events held at Daytona on the Cup Series ci ...

using the name ''Daytona USA''. (It should not be confused with the arcade game of the same name, though the game is featured in the attraction's arcade.) The attraction was awarded the

Themed Entertainment Association The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) is an international non-profit association that represents creators, developers, designers and producers of themed entertainment. It is also noted for its THEA Awards, which were founded in 1995 and ar ...

's Thea Award of Outstanding Achievement in September 1997. The attraction was expanded by in July 2001. The renovation added two motion simulators: an IWERKS motion simulator ride called ''Daytona Dream Laps'' and the full-motion simulator ''Acceleration Alley''. A third simulator, ''Toyota Tundra's Thunder Road'', was added in 2003. Daytona USA celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2006 by adding the ''Daytona 500 Champion's Walk of Fame'' to the walkway in front of the building. On July 1, 2007, Daytona USA was renamed the ''Daytona 500 Experience''.

Exhibits

The attraction boasted several exhibit areas, simulators and interactive displays. Some of these remain active for private functions, however the

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme F ...

presentation will no longer be shown. * The

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

Theater, home to ''NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience'', a full-length 3D feature film released in 2004. During special events the theater was also used to show other movies: during

Speedweeks Daytona Speedweeks presented by AdventHealth is a series of racing events that take place during January and February at Daytona International Speedway. Traditionally leading up to the Daytona 500, in 2021 it concluded with the Daytona road cour ...

2007, the theater showed '' Dale'', a movie about the life of

driver

Dale Earnhardt Ralph Dale Earnhardt Sr. (; April 29, 1951February 18, 2001) was an American professional stock car driver and team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notably dri ...

,">DAYTONA USA To Show The Documentary "Dale" During Speedweeks - Daytona USA
and the theater showed ''24x24: Wide Open With Jeff Gordon'' in July 2007. * Acceleration Alley, a

Full Motion Racing Simulator A full motion racing simulator, sometimes called a full motion sim rig, is a motion simulator that is purposed for racing, and must provide motion simulation in all six degrees of freedom, as defined by the aviation simulator industry many deca ...

where guests sit in 80%-scale models of

stockcars and race against other guests and AI computer competitors. * Dream Laps, an Iwerks motion simulator in which guests follow the events of a

raceday. * Chevy 16-Second Pit Stop Challenge, where guests are able to test their skills as a pit crew member and compete with the Daytona 500 Experience's own Pit Crew, who practice daily. * Goodyear Heritage Museum, which focuses on the people who have raced at Daytona Beach from the land speed record holders to stockcars racing at the Daytona Beach Road Course to stockcars racing at

. The Champion's Walk of Fame, a Hollywood-esque concrete walk paying homage to winners of the

since the attraction opened in 1996, is just outside the building, as are statues of

great

and

founder Bill France Jr. and his wife Anne. Also on display inside the attraction are the

championship trophy and the

Harley J. Earl Trophy The Harley J. Earl Trophy is the trophy presented to the winner of the premier – and season-opening – event of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the Daytona 500. It is named after influential automobile designer H ...

, which is awarded to the winner of the Daytona 500. The Daytona 500 Experience also once housed an arcade that featured many racing-themed arcade games, one of which was

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

's wildly popular ''

Daytona USA is an arcade racing video game developed by Sega AM2 in 1993 and released by Sega in 1994. Players race stock cars on one of three courses. The first game released on the Sega Model 2 three-dimensional arcade system board, a prototype debuted ...

'', with which the attraction formerly shared its name with. The Daytona 500 Experience also hosted fan forums during race time and was home to the

Richard Petty Driving Experience Walt Disney World Speedway was a racing facility located on the grounds of the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It was built in 1995 by IMS Events, Inc., a subsidiary of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation, ...

from April through October. During Bike Week and

Biketoberfest Biketoberfest is an annual motorcycle rally held in the fall in Daytona Beach, Florida since 1991 or 1992. In 1992 it was known as "Daytona Fall Tour"; in 1993, it started to be called Biketoberfest, and is now known as the "little brother" of th ...

, the Daytona 500 Experience was transformed into ''D5X'', an air conditioned haven for bikers featuring live bands, food and motorcycle exhibits. The two different Speedway Tours that the attraction featured are still offered by the speedway with some modifications: the 30-minute general admission tour and a new, 60-minute All-Access tour that is available to the public for a higher fee and covers more ground.

Daytona 500 connection

Since 1997, the winning car from the

is impounded and displayed for the next twelve months at the Daytona 500 Experience. It is a popular but controversial display, and a highlight exhibit of the museum. All winners are contractually required to surrender their winning car and all its parts, in uncleaned, complete, and unaltered condition, as explicitly specified on the race entry form. This practice is often criticized by participants because it prevents the team from driving the car (clearly a successful chassis) in the other races during the season. They argued it potentially put them at a competitive disadvantage during the rest of the NASCAR season, most notably at the other

restrictor plate A restrictor plate or air restrictor is a device installed at the intake of an engine to limit its power. This kind of system is occasionally used in road vehicles (e.g., motorcycles) for insurance purposes, but mainly in automobile racing, to li ...

races. Only twice since this display arrangement was adopted in 1997 was the winner of the Daytona 500 able to take a different car, as required, and gone on to win the next restrictor plate race ( Talladega):

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...

in 2005 and

Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. A seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, he competes part-time in the series driving for Petty GMS Motorsports. Johnson's seven Cup championships, ...

in 2006. By the time the car is returned, approximately 364 days after the victory, it is usually considered obsolete and a

write-off A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...

. The morning after the race the winning car is inducted into the museum during the Champion's Breakfast ceremony. In some years, the driver's helmet, driving suit, and/or other race-used paraphernalia are also included for display. The driver also has the honor of unveiling the logo for next year's Daytona 500.

References

External links

Daytona International SpeedwayRichard Petty Driving ExperienceDaytona 500 Experience at RoadsideAmerica.com
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Experience Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these conscious processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience involv ...

Museums in Daytona Beach, Florida Automobile museums in Florida Sports museums in Florida 1996 establishments in Florida