Daytona Beach, FL – One of the biggest parts of Daytona Rising is ready to go.
Daytona International Speedway plans to light up its 355-foot LED sign near the Fentress Boulevard intersection along West International Speedway Boulevard in a special ceremony at 5:30 PM Tuesday. The event is open to the public.
Members of the France family and DIS President Joie Chitwood III will light up the “supersign” near the central entrance to the grandstands after workers spent over a month getting it installed.
This sign – made up entirely of LED-lit letters – replaces the iconic entrance sign near Fentress Boulevard which was knocked down in July.
The new sign hangs on the newly renovated grandstands near Fentress and will be lit up at night so that the sign is visible at all times to anyone driving along West ISB.
The ‘DAYTONA’ text measures 13 feet 6 inches tall while the ‘INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY’ text is more than 12 feet tall. The DAYTONA part will be lit up in a rotation of colors while the INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY text will remain white at all times.
Wisconsin-based Jones Sign Company created the sign and transported it to Daytona Beach via 2 large semi trucks in November, traveling nearly 1,500 miles across 6 states in the process.
According to DIS officials, each of the 3,619 LED lights can produce 60,000 hours of light versus just 1,000 per incandescent bulb.
It took nearly 1,100 man-hours to build all the letters and around 30 hours total to drive the letters from Green Bay to Daytona Beach, according to Jones officials.
The $400 million renovation of the Speedway is expected to be done by the Rolex 24 race in January, around a month before the Daytona 500.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.