Daytona International Speedway Getting a Massive Renovation

If you’re a race fan, you’re going to love the news from International Speedway Corporation ISCA.

In a press release Tuesday, the company announced an up to $400 million revamp of the famed Daytona International Speedway. Anybody who has seen a race at DIS knows that the 57 year old track is showing its age. What was the most advanced and innovative race facility of its time will become the marquis race venue that matches the marquis race of the season, the Daytona 500.

Fans will see this as they enter the remodeled stadium and according to ISC, the entrance will include five redesigned fan entrances, now called injectors, which lead to escalators and elevators that take fans to one of three concourse levels.

The levels will feature 11 social neighborhoods along the front stretch that is nearly one mile long. Each neighborhood will be the size of a football field. Officials don’t expand on the neighborhood idea but they call the central neighborhood the “World Center of Racing.” This would celebrate the history of the speedway.

Others would, presumably, include the rich people neighborhood where everybody wears funny hats (sorry, wrong track), the, "so we're not just here to drink?” neighborhood, the family-friendly neighborhood, the no shirt, no shoes, no problem neighborhood, and many more.

The announcement also mentions a revamped sponsor area that will “exceed expectations” and more than 100,000 new and wider seats.

The renovation plans haven’t gone smoothly. First, NASCAR was hit hard by the economic downturn. ISC’s revenue has dropped 25 percent over the past five years. The company, which owns 12 tracks that all are need of renovation, has seen its stock rebound about 30 percent this year.

Second, in May, the Florida legislature failed to act on a tax subsidy bill that would provide $2 million in annual tax breaks for 30 years if the company invested at least $250 million into renovations. According to Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood,

“We are clearly disappointed by the outcome last week in the Florida Legislature. We made a very compelling case for what could have been a successful public-private partnership with the State of Florida to create jobs and generate real economic growth. We also had substantial local, regional and statewide support.”

Because of this, DIS had to reduce the size of the renovation efforts. No longer will the famed infield be revamped.

Construction will begin after the 2013 Coke Zero 400 NASCAR weekend and is slated to complete in 2016.

Check out this video to learn more about the project.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Tim Parker had no position in the stock listed.