WALTER IOOSS, JR. / SPORTS ILLUSTRATEDIt took a gas station owner from Washington D.C. to recognize that the annual Daytona gathering could be much more than a race on a beach. In the mid-1950s, Bill France, Sr. seen here in a 1965 photo, began construction on an unprecedented speedway, 2.5 miles long, twice the length of existing tracks.