Daytona International Speedway

The Super Bowl of NASCAR: Daytona International Speedway hosts two NASCAR Cup races each year, the Daytona 500 in February and the Pepsi 400 in July. These are two of the biggest, fastest and most nerve wracking events on the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup schedule.

The fast 2.5 mile tri-oval uses restrictor plates to keep the speeds manageable but those plates create fertile ground for The Big One. The plates cause aerodynamics to be more important than horsepower which results in big packs of cars running nose to tail and door to door all day long.

Lately however we have seen that it is virtually impossible to pass and frequently the driver that gets out of the pits first on the last pit stop can hold on to win.

The other downside to racing at Daytona is "The Big One." With so many cars so close together if anyone makes the slightest error it can cause a 40-car pileup.

However, all of the restrictor plate stuff aside, the Daytona 500 is the grandaddy of them all. Your career isn't complete until you've found Victory Lane at Daytona. Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt spent the majority of their careers trying to win it, finally both scored the big win late in their careers and both called it the biggest day of their professional lives. Daytona really is that special.