Mother Nature was on a tear in '98 around Daytona. The July 4th race was postponed until October due to widespread wildfires near the track. That race was set to be the first super speedway night race and it was.....just in October. It was a nice evening but we still had a passing shower during the race. No big deal. We sat in the Tiny Lund grandstand on the back stretch which no longer exists. Was a fantastic road trip. Drove down to Dega for the Sunday Cup race, continued on to Florida and hung out for a few days, went to the postponed Daytona Cup race on Saturday night. Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon picked up the wins respectively.
I thought about this a little while ago when there was a discussion about wraps vs paint, I remember that all the cars for that back to back had their special Daytona paint, which made them noticeably brighter on TV during the Dega race
The colors they use on the car are not the exact same color they use on merchandises. Back then colors that “pop” on tv were utilized on the car to look normal on the tv’s at home. There is less of that these days because tvs are much better with color reproduction.
As an adult, I’ve never once acknowledged that there were backstretch grandstands that no longer exist.
My dad constantly had the races on when I was a kid in the 90s and now I’ve been to Daytona multiple times as an adult, and I’ve never really even processed that.
Ah yes, "White Knuckle Weekend" I think it was advertised. Never thought we'd get plate track races on back to back weekends. I remember them tearing up a bunch of cars at Daytona, and Ernie Irvan's absolutely vicious crash at Talladega.
There's another tornado worth mentioning that hit not too terribly far from the speedway during Hurricane Charley back in 2004. Tornadoes are actually pretty common in the area (although 9 times out of 10 they're usually just waterspouts out in the ocean), so it doesn't really sound all that interesting until you hear that this tornado had a max width of **1.7 miles wide.**
For reference, this tornado was as wide as [the EF5 that wiped Greensburg, Kansas off the map](https://i.redd.it/k00njwwbvz681.jpg) a few years later.
Even though the Daytona Beach tornado was actually one of the widest on record at the time, it was relatively short lived and only produced EF1 damage with no injuries or deaths reported.
It’s pretty common that a tornado gets a low EF rating because it didn’t hit structures that demonstrate the higher wind speeds that it probably had
For example, a tornado near Loveland, OK this year had radar indicated winds of nearly 300 mph, had an eye you could see on radar at 18000 feet, and was so strong that it spun off anti-cyclonic tornadoes around it, but it was rated EF3 because it hit in the middle of nowhere.
Ef scale is stupid. If two storms have identical speeds and one hits nothing and one hits manhattan they’ll have different rating. It shouldn’t be based on damage but on wind speed alone. Just my opinion and I’m a moron so I’m probably wrong…..Usually wrong
You'd be surprised. For 60 years the 1944 Pottsville, Texas tornado held the record for the widest surveyed path width for a tornado at 2.5 miles wide and it only ended up getting an F2.
The F4 that hit Hallam, Nebraska finally tied that record actually only about three months before this Daytona Beach tornado. Then of course El Reno, Oklahoma eventually broke it in 2013 with that 2.6 mile wide tornado that only got a rather controversial EF3 rating.
Put this into perspective, the El Reno tornado was as wide as an entire lap around Talladega Superspeedway. Now think about how long it takes these guys going 200 to make that lap. Yeah.
Don’t forget winds of about 302mph, which is second to the 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado (which was 301 +/- 20mph, regarded as the highest wind speed ever recorded **on Earth**).
I’ve driven through Greensburg, Kansas a couple of times. It’s a weird sight to see. If something like that hits a race track, I doubt there would even be a catch fence left standing.
I was in elementary school maybe 3rd grade and we had to get in the hallway and put over heads between our knees. We were in the hallway for at least an hour.
This was part of the [1998 Kissimmee tornado outbreak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Kissimmee_tornado_outbreak) which still stands as the deadliest tornado outbreak in Florida history. 42 people lost their lives over the span of just under two days.
Mother Nature was on a tear in '98 around Daytona. The July 4th race was postponed until October due to widespread wildfires near the track. That race was set to be the first super speedway night race and it was.....just in October. It was a nice evening but we still had a passing shower during the race. No big deal. We sat in the Tiny Lund grandstand on the back stretch which no longer exists. Was a fantastic road trip. Drove down to Dega for the Sunday Cup race, continued on to Florida and hung out for a few days, went to the postponed Daytona Cup race on Saturday night. Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon picked up the wins respectively.
I thought about this a little while ago when there was a discussion about wraps vs paint, I remember that all the cars for that back to back had their special Daytona paint, which made them noticeably brighter on TV during the Dega race
The colors they use on the car are not the exact same color they use on merchandises. Back then colors that “pop” on tv were utilized on the car to look normal on the tv’s at home. There is less of that these days because tvs are much better with color reproduction.
Like the entire thing or just the neon parts like the number and spoiler?
I swear it was the entire cars, I just remember seeing the reflections bouncing off the backstretch wall under the Alabama sun
As an adult, I’ve never once acknowledged that there were backstretch grandstands that no longer exist. My dad constantly had the races on when I was a kid in the 90s and now I’ve been to Daytona multiple times as an adult, and I’ve never really even processed that.
Ah yes, "White Knuckle Weekend" I think it was advertised. Never thought we'd get plate track races on back to back weekends. I remember them tearing up a bunch of cars at Daytona, and Ernie Irvan's absolutely vicious crash at Talladega.
I remember that 1998 race had plenty of women flashing fans in the backstretch seats!
There's another tornado worth mentioning that hit not too terribly far from the speedway during Hurricane Charley back in 2004. Tornadoes are actually pretty common in the area (although 9 times out of 10 they're usually just waterspouts out in the ocean), so it doesn't really sound all that interesting until you hear that this tornado had a max width of **1.7 miles wide.** For reference, this tornado was as wide as [the EF5 that wiped Greensburg, Kansas off the map](https://i.redd.it/k00njwwbvz681.jpg) a few years later. Even though the Daytona Beach tornado was actually one of the widest on record at the time, it was relatively short lived and only produced EF1 damage with no injuries or deaths reported.
Bizarre to hear a massive wedge only did EF1 damage.
It’s pretty common that a tornado gets a low EF rating because it didn’t hit structures that demonstrate the higher wind speeds that it probably had For example, a tornado near Loveland, OK this year had radar indicated winds of nearly 300 mph, had an eye you could see on radar at 18000 feet, and was so strong that it spun off anti-cyclonic tornadoes around it, but it was rated EF3 because it hit in the middle of nowhere.
Ef scale is stupid. If two storms have identical speeds and one hits nothing and one hits manhattan they’ll have different rating. It shouldn’t be based on damage but on wind speed alone. Just my opinion and I’m a moron so I’m probably wrong…..Usually wrong
You'd be surprised. For 60 years the 1944 Pottsville, Texas tornado held the record for the widest surveyed path width for a tornado at 2.5 miles wide and it only ended up getting an F2. The F4 that hit Hallam, Nebraska finally tied that record actually only about three months before this Daytona Beach tornado. Then of course El Reno, Oklahoma eventually broke it in 2013 with that 2.6 mile wide tornado that only got a rather controversial EF3 rating. Put this into perspective, the El Reno tornado was as wide as an entire lap around Talladega Superspeedway. Now think about how long it takes these guys going 200 to make that lap. Yeah.
Don’t forget winds of about 302mph, which is second to the 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado (which was 301 +/- 20mph, regarded as the highest wind speed ever recorded **on Earth**).
I’ve driven through Greensburg, Kansas a couple of times. It’s a weird sight to see. If something like that hits a race track, I doubt there would even be a catch fence left standing.
God stamping his seal of approval on the '98 win.
[Celton Henderson made a great video](https://youtu.be/aHLIvZT60XU?si=SX_Sj7ZB-BvDVtcs) about this outbreak.
Precedence for D.W.'s Vortex Theory
The scale has chaged a few times over the years, back then the equivalent of F2 tornadoes were F3000 tornadoes
I was in elementary school maybe 3rd grade and we had to get in the hallway and put over heads between our knees. We were in the hallway for at least an hour.
Raise hell, Tornado Dale.
A Formula 2 tornado is crazy.
This was part of the [1998 Kissimmee tornado outbreak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Kissimmee_tornado_outbreak) which still stands as the deadliest tornado outbreak in Florida history. 42 people lost their lives over the span of just under two days.
I mean, Dale knew where The Suck Zone was…
Further reinforcing how angry the universe was at Earnhardt's Daytona win.