The first and most prestigious race of the North American Nascar stock car-racing series’ calendar, the Daytona 500, sold out of its single-sale tickets only 24 hours before the event that took place yesterday (Sunday).
The previous year, the event sold out five days ahead of the race at Daytona International Speedway in Florida.
Dozens of seats were still available to purchase through the track’s website on Friday before inventory dwindled further.
The cheapest seats for sale by the track as of 3.30pm on Friday were $165 (£133/€156) about an hour before the track announced the sell-out at around 4.45pm, according to USA Today.
Premium ticket packages and infield admission tickets were still available along with thousands of tickets that remained on the secondary ticket market.
Two days before the event, there were about 1,500 seats listed on StubHub, starting at $105, with the cheapest face value seat for the race at $95. That price dropped $2 the day before the race, with the most expensive tickets on the site priced at $550 for seats on the start and finish lines.
During the $400m renovation of the Daytona International Speedway in 2016, about 45,000 seats were removed from the backstretch of the track, lowering the grandstand seating to 101,500.
The improvements sparked an uplift in attendance and a boost of 17-per-cent in the average sale price for the race on tickets sold on StubHub from the 2015 Daytona 500.
The 2017 prices for tickets sold on StubHub range from $75 to $750, a range that is about 25-per-cent lower than the final average sale prices a year ago.
Average prices dropped 19-per-cent over the three days leading up to the event to $209, according to TicketIQ.
“The fact that there’s more inventory available this year than in years past means that it will be cheaper than ever to see this historic event,” TicketIQ spokesperson Jesse Lawrence said.
Image: Nascarking
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