The course began on the pavement of Highway A1A (South Atlantic Avenue) near Ponce Inlet and ran approximately two miles south to the end of the road. Drivers then dropped onto the beach at the south turn and returned two miles north on the sand surface before rejoining the highway at the north turn. The original lap length was 3.2 miles, later extended to 4.2 miles in the late 1940s. The combination of high-speed pavement and sandy, unpredictable beach sections made the circuit demanding and unlike any other venue in American motorsport.
The beach at Daytona had long been recognized as an ideal surface for speed attempts. On March 29, 1927, Major Henry Segrave set a world land speed record on the course at 203.79 mph in his Sunbeam 1000 hp Mystery, peaking at 211 mph. Over the following decade, 15 world land speed records were set at Daytona Beach.
The first organized automobile race on the beach-road course was held in 1936, organized by local racer Sig Haugdahl at the request of Daytona Beach city officials, who posted a $5,000 purse. The event was plagued by impassable sandy corners, scoring disputes, and technical protests, and was stopped after 75 of 78 laps. The city lost an estimated $22,000 on the event. William France Sr., who had relocated from Washington, D.C. to Daytona in 1935, finished fifth in that race. He and Haugdahl organized a second event in 1937 through the Daytona Beach Elks Club, which was more successful but still lost money.
France took over management of the course in 1938, running two events that year. He steadily built the event into a profitable and prominent fixture on the American racing calendar through the early 1940s, before World War II halted racing. Events resumed in 1946.
France's work at the beach course gave him a platform to address a fundamental problem in American racing: unscrupulous promoters who collected gate revenue and disappeared before paying drivers. On December 14, 1947, France convened meetings at the Ebony Bar in the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach. Those discussions culminated on February 21, 1948 in the formal founding of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing — NASCAR. The Daytona Beach and Road Course immediately became the home of the new organization's most important race.
The beach-road course hosted major NASCAR events from 1949 through 1958. In 1949, Red Byron won the Grand National race at Daytona, going on to claim the series' first championship. In 1950, Harold Kite won in a 1949 Lincoln. Marshall Teague, driving his Fabulous Hudson Hornet, won back-to-back in 1951 and 1952. In 1953, Bill Blair inherited the win after Fonty Flock ran out of fuel on the final lap despite holding a commanding lead.
In 1954, Tim Flock crossed the line first but was disqualified on a technical infraction; second-place finisher Lee Petty was declared the winner. That year also saw 136 cars start the Modified/Sportsman preliminary event — the largest field in any NASCAR-sanctioned race. The 1955 race was won officially by Tim Flock after Fireball Roberts was disqualified post-race for pushrods found to be 0.016 inches too long. In 1956, Tim Flock won from pole in a Carl Kiekhaefer-owned Chrysler C-300, with Charlie Scott becoming the first African-American to compete in a NASCAR Grand National race in that same event.
Paul Goldsmith won the final race at the course in 1958, driving a Pontiac prepared by Ray Fox.
Urban development along the Daytona beachfront throughout the 1950s made the race increasingly difficult to stage. Hotels were being constructed across the competing area, and crowd management became a significant challenge. France had already begun negotiations with the city to build a permanent facility. Construction of the Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5-mile tri-oval, began in 1957. The beach-road course hosted its last NASCAR race in 1958, and the first Daytona 500 was run at the new superspeedway in 1959. Speed Week beach events continued through 1961 for time and distance record attempts, but the era of racing on sand and asphalt at Daytona was over.
A restaurant named Racing's North Turn now occupies the site of the original north turn on South Atlantic Avenue.