This Is Why IndyCar Does Not Race at Daytona

This Is Why IndyCar Does Not Race at Daytona

[jlloyd]

In 1959, shortly after the track opened in Daytona, the Sumar Special Streamline was testing this very concept. G-loads in the banking caused it to bottom out and the resulting crash killed the driver, Marshall Teague. Bill France, Sr. said no more and that was that. Could they run it today? Maybe...but the speeds would likely be close to 250mph and the safety of the fans and drivers would be questionable.

[theabsolutedrive]

The real reason they don’t race at Oval’s like Daytona is the banking. They would be flat out through the turns and the Positive G-load would cause them to get light headed or blackout. And with the cars being able to go flat out you would probably see a lot of pack racing which Indy doesn’t want or need.

[richardbullwood]

It's not just the drivers, it's the fans. You go into a corner at 240 miles an hour and wreck, there's no way you're going to keep all that damage on the track.

[briantaylor]

The banking. The extreme speed combined with the G's from 31° of banking would cause drivers to black out. A CART race at Texas Motor Speedway was cancelled because drivers were "greying out". Also, the insane speeds would cause HORRIFIC crashes. Cars would be going into the catch fence. Remember Dan Wheldon and Tony Renna. The last time IndyCars DID race at Daytona was 1959; cars were hitting 180mph - in 1959 - and two drivers were killed.

[westvalley]

Almost thought this was real until that last bounce at the end

[markg.]

I still have an original Play Station, that I used to run the PPG Indycar World Series on. You could run the whole series, or pick a track to run however many laps you wanted. My favorite was the full 500 miles at MIS. Once you got into a rhythm, you could run laps in the mid 240's. By the time you ran all 500 miles, you were worn out mentally. It was great fun.

[RacingTeam]

They should race the road course instead

[MatthewJPerry-fhis]

Every race would be fatal. Graveyard 500

[duffman]

Indycar once had scheduled a race at Talladega, which has more or less identical design to Daytona, but it was eventually cancelled after they did track testing a few months before and discovered that it was so dangerous, that any crash that would happen in the race would lead to the certain death of at least some of the drivers.
The amount of banking at talladega and daytona is such that it's like they're not even turning left, but instead are driving upwards. They of course are still turning left but the point is the fact it's angled so that it's more going uphill than it is going left (like at indianapolis which has no banking, so the left turns are completely left turns, no going upwards) makes it so they don't ever have to break and instead just keep going at full acceleration. Which is fine in a stock car when people are far better protected. But in an open wheel car it's just too dangerous, any contact with other cars, especially in pack racing, would lead to tons of cars being collected and almost certain death of drivers. Even today with the windshield thing indycars have where if the car flips upside down they don't land on their heads anymore, it'd still just be too dangerous.

I do wish the opposite would happen though. For nascar to race at an indycar circuit, namely the oval track at Indianapolis. I know they didn't have great fan turnout, but few nascar races do anymore sadly. The brickyard 400 was completely unique on the nascar calendar because of how flat the track is unlike the ovals nascar usually race on. It required a whole different style of driving and different car set ups compared to something like daytona.

[rotnbazturd]

G-forces in the banking would get high enough to cause drivers to black out. Had this problem at Texas.

[TheRealestIdealist]

I thought this was REAL footage until I saw the car pop itself back up 😂

[antonyduhamel]

It took me a lap and a half to realize this was simulated. The graphics are that good!

[jaydee]

The way the driver balanced the car on top of his head at 1:02...impressive.

[diegohayato]

I may to be mistaken, but I guess the only way for the IndyCar Series run at Daytona it would be using the same road course track that is used at 24 Hours of Daytona. I guess that G force wouldn't so strong over drivers.

A IndyCar racing machine running on the Daytona's oval track would be a madness and a lot dangerous.

[codileger]

It’s probably more a speed and pack racing concern for accident into catch fence. They probably would be doing high 240’s or 250’s

[vicarious]

Nice to see you kept your head through all that and brought her in safe! Lol

[cranberrysuit]

That dude had an extremely resilient head

[DSmith]

Always thought seeing them race the Charlotte Roval would be cool even daytona Road course of some sort.

[williamwood]

That car held together better than nascar cars.

[bigeddie]

And you have to remember it’s only a game