Daytona Trophy Unveiled for UNOH Battle at the Beach

Story by: Travis Barrett/NASCAR
Photo from: Hometracks.NASCAR.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The UNOH Battle At The Beach is just over two months away, and on Friday morning at the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Grand Champions Awards, a piece of throwback hardware was introduced.

Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood III unveiled the inaugural Battle At The Beach trophy during the awards ceremony. The trophy is a replica of the trophy presented to Fonty Flock for winning on the beach circuit at Daytona in 1954.
Lee Pulliam, the 2012 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national champion, was among those who were impressed.

“I always like old trophies, the history of NASCAR and where it comes from and what it began as,” Pulliam said. “I think that’s an important part of this sport. To see that trophy being a replica of one of the first ones given out, that’s really neat. It’s pretty special deal. It would be pretty sweet to take that thing home.”

Pulliam will have to wait until February to have his shot at winning the trophy for himself. The inaugural Battle At The Beach is slated for February 18-19, 2013, during Speedweeks in Daytona. It will be contested on a .4-mile oval on the track’s backstretch.

With the addition of the Battle – featuring K&N Pro Series, Modified and Late Model races – Daytona International Speedway is the first track to feature every level of NASCAR-sanctioned racing at its facility, as the short-track teams join the three national NASCAR Series and the Grand-Am Series at the famed speedway.

“It’s our first foray into short-track racing,” Chitwood said. “Now we’ve got this new two-day event on Monday and Tuesday of race week, and we’re really excited.”

Incorporating the track’s storied history within NASCAR was an important component in designing a trophy for the Battle At The Beach.

“When you think about a trophy for an event, you want to do something special. So for us, we went back in our archives and looked at the the actual trophies that were given out at the beaches,” Chitwood said. “The trophy that you saw today was actually modeled off our 1954 trophy. So, that’s pretty cool for us that we can look to the future by adding a new event but we pulled from our past something special to make it unique.”

Pulliam, one of 10 drivers locked into the starting field for the Late Model race at the Battle by virtue of finishing in the Top-10 in the final NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Div. I national standings, is excited for his opportunity to race at Daytona.
He said without the Battle At The Beach, he might never have had such an opportunity in his career.

“The opportunity to go to Daytona, me as a driver, I don’t have a lot of finances to move up in this sport. That’s kind of what it takes in this day and time,” Pulliam said. “To me, this is probably going to be my only opportunity to run at Daytona, so it’s going to be a big deal for a lot of us.”