Question for you FL folks, daytona 500 parking lots....

[tnbassman]

I have read the FL site at handgunlaw.us and it is kinda confusing. Can you park at the track owned parking lots and leave your weapon in the car while you attend the race?
Are the parking lots considered "at" the professional sporting event?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[rmodel65]

hmm i guess driving is a sport....i carry into the speedway for cars shows though....but they are sporting events unless you considering haggling a sport lol

[Superhouse 15]

Many of the lots are quite a distance away from the track, although they are on DIS owned property. Most are just vacant cow pastures. If you park in Lot 7 or 10 you're pretty far from the actual track, and nobody is checking any cars. There is no security, just rent-a-bums directing traffic and the occasional drive through by a Speedway FD truck. DBPD is far too busy to care what you bring into the lot, they're only concerned with setting up all the traffic patterns in the exact opposite way that everyone want's to drive.

There are plenty of other lots to park in, and the price goes up as walking distance goes down. Every store or strip mall closes and rents out their parking lot, and those are not connected to DIS, all private property. None has very reliable security with the POSSIBLE exception of the Volusia Mall, which has a regular compliment of Mall Security Operators. (1700 West Intl Speedway Blvd)


And I imagine that some coffee and / or donuts might persuade a couple of firemen to watch a certain vehicle. That detail is pretty boring when there are no people walking (or staggering) by to watch.

[TheShadow]

Last time I was at Daytona was the 500 in 2002. We parked across the street from the track in one of the businesses parking lots near the "Welcome To Daytona" sign that crosses over the street. I locked my handgun in the trunk and didn't even consider carrying it in the track. This was the first Daytona race after 911 and security was very very tight.

Enjoy the race and hopefully the weather will warm up a bit down there for ya.

[retsupt99]

You CAN lock your firearm in the car, preferably in the trunk in a 'hidden' CoM Safe...yes!

[Superhouse 15]

Last year I went inside to set up some Hazmat monitors and there were local Police Explorers using inspection mirrors to search under cars. I thought that was a joke, but there are lots of Federal level security and monitoring there. Some of the capabilities are pretty impressive.

Pretty sure it's not classified that the radiation monitors some .gov agencies use can tell if you had a Thyroid treatment or a radiocardiogram when your car drives by their plain white van parked on the side of the road.

[LMarshall73]

Anyone going to the speedway be aware. In July 08 there was a catch and release of 4 Muslims on the terror watch list. They were driving by taking pictures of the speedway. With the recent increase in jihadi activity, well, be safe.