Photos: The first NASCAR races were literally on Daytona Beach

Blood and sand…and oil

Stock cars wait for the stock car race to begin on the beach-road course at Daytona Beach, Fla., 1956. (AP Photo)

Something about Florida must breed crazy. And nothing says Florida like a day at the beach—especially if it involves driving at dangerously high speeds.

The sands of Daytona Beach have attracted drivers since the early 20th century. British daredevil Sir Henry Segrave set the world land speed record here in 1927, and again in 1929 when he pushed his Golden Arrow to 231 mph. In the 1930s a portion of the beach was coopted as one-half of an oval shaped track for stock car racing—the beginning of an annual event which would eventually become the Daytona 500.

In early days, races were ill-planned and disorderly affairs. The first race, in 1936, had to be called at 75 laps due to overcrowding and degraded sand conditions. Over the years that followed, event promoters would routinely cheat drivers by skipping out after races without paying anyone—a practice which was so common it prompted the formation of NASCAR in 1948 as a way to standardize the system. By then the beach was hosting numerous races each year, but the growing crowds and increased shoreline development meant NASCAR needed a new home. The Daytona Beach course held its last races in 1958. A year later the inaugural Daytona 500 would be held 12 miles away at the newly constructed Daytona International Speedway.

Sir Henry Segrave motoring his Golden Arrow down Daytona Beach in 1929. (National Motor Museum/Getty)

A panoramic postcard from 1911 showing cars and airplanes racing down Daytona Beach with the Clarendon Hotel in the background. (H. Marshall Gardiner/LOC)

Speed record attempts drew huge crowds to the beach in the 1920s. (ISC Images & Archives/Getty)

Cars exit the south turn of the Daytona Beach-Road Course during the 1954 NASCAR Cup race. Tim Flock’s (#88) 1954 Oldsmobile took the checkered flag but was disqualified for an altered carburetor, handing the win to Lee Petty. Curtis Turner (#14), also in a 1954 Oldsmobile, finished the event in third. (ISC Images & Archives/Getty)

A 1955 aerial view looking south on the 4.2-mile Daytona Beach Road Course with cars entering the north turn. Around 80 cars started the event, which was won by Banjo Matthews. (ISC Images & Archives/Getty Images)

1: Red Farmer’s #61 catches air after hitting a pothole in 1953. (AP/James P. Kerlin) 2: Cars pile up at the north turn in 1954. (AP Photo)

Bub King (R) drove this 1952 Hudson to a 21st place finish in the NASCAR Cup race in 1953. (ISC Images & Archives/Getty)

Driver Bobby Sall is hurled from his car during a test run in 1936. The car turned over two or three times. Sall was knocked unconscious but uninjured. (AP Photo)

George Roeder lies unconscious on the track after he was thrown from his motorcycle during the 200-mile national championship at Daytona Beach in 1958. He was carried from the track, but later got back into the race. (AP/Preston Stroup)

Curtis Turner poses with his trophy cup after winning the Convertible Stock Car Race at Daytona Beach in 1956. (AP Photo)

Red Byron and his Cadillac at Daytona Beach, 1953. (ISC Images & Archives/Getty)

An official waves the checkered flag as driver Danny Eames wins the ‘Flying Mile’ stock car race in a Dodge D-500 on the beach at Daytona, 1956. (Walter Bennett/Getty)