NASCAR: Football coming to Daytona International Speedway?

By Asher Fair | Feb 19, 2019

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 17: A general view of racing during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 61st Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 17, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images) /

There is a chance that the infield of Daytona International Speedway will host football games again in the near future. Will it happen?

This past Sunday, football came to Daytona International Speedway. Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt served as the grand marshal for the 61st annual Daytona 500, and New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman officially got the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season underway by waving the green flag.

But could football actually come to Daytona International Speedway in the form of an actual football game or perhaps even football games?

The infield of the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona International Speedway oval in Daytona Beach, Florida has hosted football games before. It hosted a number of high school and college football games from 1959, the year in which they track opened, through 1975, and the possibility of football games returning to the track is not out of the question for the future according to Forbes’ Dave Caldwell.

The 101,500-seat venue could certainly house plenty of fans for a football game, although many of the seats would be quite a distance away from the strip of grass in front of the main grandstands.

Designers ensured that this strip of grass, which separates pit lane from the track itself, was made up of enough space to fit a football field when the track was renovated before the 2017 NASCAR season began.

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The last NASCAR track to host an NCAA football game is Bristol Motor Speedway. The four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked oval in Bristol, Tennessee played host to a game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Virginia Tech Hokies in September of 2016.

Football fans who are not NASCAR fans and watching this highly publicized matchup between Tennessee and Virginia Tech described the Bristol Motor Speedway venue as “huge”. Little do these football fans know that Bristol Motor Speedway is actually the second shortest track on the Cup Series schedule behind the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) Martinsville Speedway oval in Ridgeway, Virginia, and little do they know that it is barely 20% the size of Daytona International Speedway.

That said, the game at Bristol Motor Speedway drew 156,990 fans, which shattered the all-time football game attendance record by more than 40,000 fans.

The all-time NCAA football game attendance record was 115,109, which was set in September of 2013 when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish traveled to Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan to take on the Michigan Wolverines.

The all-time NFL regular season game attendance record is 105,121, which was set in September of 2009 when the New York Giants traveled to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas to take on the Dallas Cowboys.

While the grandstands at Daytona International Speedway do not hold as many people as those at Bristol Motor Speedway do, a football game on the track’s infield would certainly be quite the sight, especially in this day and age and especially given how great the game at Bristol Motor Speedway looked.

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Will football be played at Daytona International Speedway in the near future? While nothing appears to be imminent or even in the works at this time, don’t rule out the possibility of it happening within the next few years.