"daytona beach, florida" a Daytona Beach Travel Page by doug48

the area around present day daytona beach was originally inhabited by the timucuan native american tribe. the town of daytona beach was founded in 1870 and was named after matthias d. day. the population of daytona beach grew with henry flagler's florida east coast railway in the 1880's. the florida east coast railway made it easy for northern tourists to travel to daytona beach and was instrumental in developing daytona beach into the popular tourist destination that it is today. promoters of daytona beach called daytona the "world's most famous beach" in the 1920's. today over 8 million tourists come to daytona beach each year for it's beautiful beach and special events such as speed week, bike week, and spring break.

daytona is famous for it's motor sports events. begining in 1902 the flat hard packed sand beach was used for automobile and motorcycle races. in 1936 the first stock car race was run on the daytona beach road course. the road course was partly run on US A1A and on the beach. in 1959 william france created NASCAR and built the daytona international speedway. for those interested in stock car and motorcycle racing daytona beach hosts a number of events each year for the race fan.