Daytona Int’l Speedway saw an attendance uptick for Sunday’s Daytona 500 over last year, with the 300 and 400 level of seats in the new frontstretch grandstand effectively selling out, according to track President Joie Chitwood III. The racetrack is in the middle of its $400M Daytona Rising renovation, with completion scheduled for next year. Chitwood, who during the early portion of Sunday’s race walked the concourses encompassing the 40,000 new frontstretch seats that are already installed, said the race “was not sold out, but we were up significantly over last year.” Chitwood: “That’s a big deal for us -- especially moving into next year, when everything is going to be done. I was pleased with the backstretch, which is usually not the best location to be at a race. But I actually thought the crowd was respectable back there. And if you look at the frontstretch, I think we sold almost every seat.” He added the track stopped selling infield fan-zone passes on Saturday after reaching capacity, notable because demand for them usually reaches its height on Sundays. ISC stopped releasing attendance figures in ‘12 for all of its properties. In terms of things he wants to improve in the new concourses from this year’s race, Chitwood cited signage, shade structures and the flow of the men’s restrooms. Conversely, he said he was impressed with the expanded guest-services department, adding, “I was very concerned about that because you spend all of this capital to build a new facility -- you’ve got to make sure your human capital is ready for the same opportunity.” Chitwood said now that the Daytona 500 is over, he and his staff will start getting into the specifics of how much adding SAFER barriers throughout the track will cost following the crash that injured Kyle Busch in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, calling it “literally No. 1 on the agenda this week.”
