Demo begins on Daytona Speedway backstretch grandstands

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The demolition process of the backstretch grandstands started on Monday at the Daytona International Speedway.

"It's a very large project," said Charles Jordan, owner of Bleacher Builders Incorporated.

Bleacher Builders Inc. teamed up with Daytona International Speedway to put the grandstand seats to good use.

"It's not going in the dumpster, it's not being scrapped. There's a lot of tracks, schools, fairgrounds that could not afford this type of seating if it weren't for the Speedway doing what they're doing and me doing what I'm doing," said Jordan.

The Speedway donated 500 seats to Port Orange Pop Warner Football Association and another 2,000 seats to the Volusia County School Board. Bleacher Builders will be putting them back together.

"We're getting them re-engineered, and then we'll be reinstalling them for Pop Warner and they won't spend any money," said Jordan.

Jordan said that's a very good deal, considering new grandstand seats are costly.

"Two thousand seats would be around $400,000 to $500,000," he said.

The rest of the grandstand and the iconic pressbox will be sold to other tracks and theme parks around the country. However, Jordan said he doesn't mind the tough job to help others in need.

"We liked what the track is doing with donating and we just decided to get involved. It sounded like the thing to do," said Jordan.

Demolition should be completed by October. The Daytona Rising Project will be completed by January 2016.