Considered one of the best NASCAR drivers of all time, Earnhardt won a total of 76 races over the course of his career, including one Daytona 500 victory in 1998.

While driving in the 2001 Daytona 500, Earnhardt died of basilar skull fracture in a last-lap crash at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2001.

In 1983, Earnhardt rebounded and won his first of 12 Twin 125 Daytona 500 qualifying races.

Near the end of the Daytona 500, he had a four-second lead when the final caution flag came out with a handful of laps to go.

The No. 3 Goodwrench Chevy team took the flat tire that cost them the win and hung it on the shop wall as a reminder of how close they'd come to winning the Daytona 500.

Earnhardt once again came close to a win at the Daytona 500, and dominated Speedweeks before finishing second to Dale Jarrett on a last-lap pass.

Earnhardt started off the 1995 season by finishing second in the Daytona 500 to Sterling Marlin.

1996 for Earnhardt started just as it had done in 1993 – he dominated Speedweeks only to finish second in the Daytona 500 to Dale Jarrett for a second time.

Once again in the hunt for the Daytona 500 with 10 laps to go, Earnhardt was taken out of contention by a late crash which sent his car upside down on the backstretch.

1998 saw Earnhardt win the Daytona 500 after not winning in the previous 19 attempts.

The Daytona 500 is ours.

In the weeks before the annual Daytona 500, Earnhardt elected not to attend the annual fan and media preview event, drawing vocal criticism from fellow driver Jimmy Spencer.

At the 2001 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2001, Earnhardt was involved in a car accident after the final lap, in which Earnhardt's car was pushed into the wall nose-first by Ken Schrader's car at an estimated speed of.

This led to an emotional celebration on the infield with driver Michael Waltrip ( who finished in second place ), whose victory at the Daytona 500 was vastly overshadowed.

Their finishing order was the reverse of the Daytona 500 finish order.

* Earnhardt Jr. later went on to win the 2004 Daytona 500, three years after his father's death and six years to the day after his father won the 1998 Daytona 500.

* Every three years since Earnhardt's death, someone associated with Earnhardt has won the Daytona 500 ( his son Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in 2004, Earnhardt's replacement Cup driver Kevin Harvick in 2007, and Earnhardt Ganassi's Jamie McMurray in 2010.

Category: Daytona 500 winners

* 1959 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.

* 2001 – Seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt dies in an accident during the Daytona 500.

One plane crash was said to have taken place in 1937 off Daytona Beach, Florida, in front of hundreds of witnesses ; a check of the local papers revealed nothing.

* Commodore ( shipwreck ), a steamer lost to a maritime disaster in 1897 that occurred off the coast of Daytona Beach, Florida, of which American novelist Stephen Crane was a surviving passenger

Earnhardt Jr. won the first of those two races, which was the season-opening event at Daytona.

City Island Ballpark in Daytona Beach, Florida — the baseball field that became the Dodgers ' de facto spring training site in 1947 — was renamed Jackie Robinson Ballpark in 1989.

At the 2012 WSIA Summit in Snow board of directors meeting the creation of a parasail committee chaired by Daytona Beach Parasail's president, Matthew Dvorak was created.

His father, Lee Petty, won the first Daytona 500 in 1959 and was also a 3 time NASCAR champion.

By 1962, the SCCA was tasked with managing the U. S. World Sportscar Championship rounds at Daytona, Sebring, Bridgehampton and Watkins Glen.

In 1987 Bill Elliot's asphalt blistering qualifying time at Talladega brought about a change at superspeedways ( Daytona and Talladega ). Such high speeds and Bobby Allison's car going airborne into the catch-fence and injuring fans forced NASCAR to implement power-reducing measures, one of which was the mandated implement of below carburetor restrictor plates.

The 2001 Daytona 500 witnessed the death of Dale Earnhardt on the final lap of the event after he was in an accident.

Because of inclement weather conditions during the scheduled 2012 race, the Daytona 500 was rescheduled to Monday night, February 27, 2012.

It was the first time in the 54 years of the Daytona 500 that the race was not only postponed, but ran as a night race.

Eventually, a stock car race was held at Daytona International Speedway in 1959.

Prior to 2005, after the top two cars were set, the top 14 cars in the qualifying races advanced to the field, and then between six ( 1998 – 2003 ), eight ( 1995 – 97, 2004 ), or ten ( until 1994 ) fastest cars which did not advance from the qualifying race were added, and, since 1976, between one and seven cars were added by previous year's points performance and or championship, except for 1985, when no such car was eligible for a provisional starting spot, the only time that happened in the Daytona 500 from when the provisional was added in 1976 through 2004.

The television ratings for the Daytona 500 have surpassed those of the larger Indianapolis 500 ( which has much larger physical attendance and international attendance ) since 1995, even though the 1995 race was available in far fewer homes than the year before.

WDJT was not available in many Wisconsin markets by the time the Daytona 500 took place.

On February 3 and 4, 2001, the first time in his career, Earnhardt participated in the Rolex 24 endurance race at Daytona, the event which kicks off Speedweeks at the track.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. made two special appearances in 2002 in a No. 3 Busch Series car: these appearances were at the track where his father died ( Daytona ) and the track where his father made his first Winston Cup start ( Charlotte ).

Shelby's first victory came on their maiden race with the Ford program, with Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby taking a Shelby American-entered GT40 to victory in the Daytona 2000 in February 1965.

* 1936 – Daytona Beach Road Course holds its first oval stock car race.

* February 22 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.

The 12 Hours of Sebring, 24 Hours of Daytona, and 24 Hours of Le Mans were once widely considered to be the trifecta of sports car racing ; driver Ken Miles would have been the only driver to win all three in the same year, but an error in the team orders of the Ford GT40 team at Le Mans in 1966 took the win from him, although he finished first.

In 1985 John Jones also won the 1985 GTO drivers ’ championship ; Wally Dallenbach Jr., John Jones and Doc Bundy won the GTO class at the Daytona 24 Hours ; and Ford won its first manufacturers ’ championship in road racing since 1970.

Daytona Beach Shores was first organized in 1960 by local business leaders convinced that a smaller community could provide better services to its residents.

The Wetherells spent that first fall and winter at Daytona Beach in the woods in an old house at what then was the northeast comer of Ridgewood and Volusia Avenue but is now known as International Speedway Boulevard ( U. S. Routes l and 92 ).

The first service in Daytona was on May 25.

Charles Wetherell became active in civic affairs and built the first church and school in 1885 on the corner of Michigan ( now 6th Street ) and Daytona Avenue.

A big event in the lives of the settlers was when the first train came through from Jacksonville to Daytona in 1887, eleven years after the Wetherells ' arrival.

He is the only driver to have won the premier North American open-wheel CART title, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Daytona, all at the first attempt.

He kicked off 2007 with a win in his first Rolex 24 At Daytona race in the Grand American Road Racing Association.

In addition, Montoya became the first driver in history to win in his first two starts in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, which he won with teammates Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Dario Franchitti.

Montoya began his NASCAR season with Daytona Speedweeks ; the first race was the Bud Shootout exhibition race in which he finished 10th.

** February 18-Richard Petty won the Daytona 500 it was the first Daytona 500 to be televised flag-to-flag by CBS Sports