Pepsi 400 preparing for night life

The days of the sun-baked Pepsi 400 are over. Night racing is coming to Daytona International Speedway, with enough voltage to light up 24,000 blocks of residential streets.

CBS Sports already owns the rights to next year's race, which would make the Pepsi 400 the first motor sports event to be shown live on a network in prime time."Forty of NASCAR's greatest stars will compete at night in a theater-like setting which is sure to be the greatest sports spectacle of the summer," Daytona president John Graham said Friday.

Winston Cup races already run at night at tracks in Charlotte, N.C., Bristol, Tenn., and Richmond, Va. Graham said installing lights at Daytona's 21/2-mile tri-oval constitutes the largest such project at a sporting facility.

Iowa-based Musco Lighting is handling the project, which has been estimated to cost from $3 million to $5 million.

"I can't imagine what it's going to look like," said Dale Jarrett, a two-time winner of the Daytona 500. "We've seen racing under the lights, but we haven't seen the racing we do at a place like Daytona under the lights. As thrilling as it is in daylight, it should be even more thrilling at night."

While Graham conceded the lights will "open up other possibilities," such as running the Daytona 500 at night, he said the lights are being added strictly for the midsummer Pepsi 400.

"We're not trying to get away from the daylight hour here," he said. "We're trying to make something good even better."

The decision was based largely on fan interest. Temperatures have been in the 90s all week, with a heat index of around 110 degrees.

Along with likely attracting more fans, a night race at Daytona in July also figures to cool the track and make it easier to handle for the drivers.

"I think the fans will appreciate it and the drivers will enjoy it," said Jim France, president of the International Speedway Corp.

The lighting system will include overhead light poles and lamps along the wall of the track - 130 poles and 2,200 fixtures. Musco Lighting president Jim Crookham said it would be enough to light 24,000 residential blocks, or a street that ran from Daytona Beach to Musco's headquarters in Iowa.