[Pepsi One]

Im doing research and I noticed the 1998 Daytona 400 was on October 17 instead of the traditional July 4th date! Why was it moved this year only!

[Mike24]

Originally Posted by Pepsi One

Im doing research and I noticed the 1998 Daytona 400 was on October 17 instead of the traditional July 4th date! Why was it moved this year only!

The race was postponed until October due to wildfires in the area.

[Phils20]

You beat me to it MIke.

Yep, the fires were terrible. The worst part was probably that they should not have even brought the teams there, in my opinion.

Most folks suspected it would be too bad to race. There was a pic run on the front page ofmost newspapers, of the orange glow in the background, with a car practicing running down the track, through one of the turns.

Does anyone remember if that was the first night race there, for NASCAR? Seems to me it was, and that was part of the reason they wanted to get it in.

I believe one of the main reasons they finally decided to cancel was that most of the roads had to be shut down, and they were really forced to leave.

[Nevadastars]

I remember that. Weren't they using the track as a staging area for the fire fighting equipment?

[Pepsi One]

Research finished then, I would have loved to seen that picture!

[Phils20]

Originally Posted by Nevadastars

I remember that. Weren't they using the track as a staging area for the fire fighting equipment?

I think they did after the tems all left.

[Phils20]

Originally Posted by Pepsi One

Research finished then, I would have loved to seen that picture!

It sounds kind of cold for me to say, but I was a cool looking shot, if you could keep your mind off the reasons why the glow was there. You didn't actually see any fire, and since newpaper pics din't have the best quality in the pics, it just looked almost like a sunset glow, except that on line and in magazines, you could tell it was fire glowing off the smoke.

[Phils20]

These are not the pics I was talking about, but it shows some of the smoke. Pretty bad stuff.

About.com: http://www.sugarfreeracing.com/pepsi_400.htm

[Nevadastars]

Originally Posted by Phils20

These are not the pics I was talking about, but it shows some of the smoke. Pretty bad stuff.

About.com: Wildfires

Ya beat me to it Phils20, I found the same link. Here is one of the shots. That is some seriously THICK smoke!........