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Sunday, Feb 24, 2013 12:30 AM UTC

Daytona put to work again after accident at track

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Topics: From the Wires,

Daytona put to work again after accident at trackTrack workers repair the safety fence along on the front grandstands, where Kyle Larson's car hit it on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)(Credit: AP)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood says “We’ll be ready to go racing” and is confident the track will be repaired in time Sunday for the Daytona 500.

At least 28 NASCAR fans were injured Saturday when large chunks of debris, including a tire, sailed into the grandstands when a car flew into the fence on a frightening last-lap accident in the second-tier Nationwide Series race.

Chitwood says he doesn’t anticipate moving any fans from those affected seats for Sunday’s race. He says the fence that separates the track from the seats will be repaired. The grandstands where fans were injured are about 200 feet from the start-finish line.

This will be the third time in four years the track has needed major repairs on Daytona 500 weekend. The 2010 race was interrupted for more than two hours because of a pothole on the track. Juan Pablo Montoya slammed into a jet dryer in last year’s race that caused a raging inferno that stopped the event for two hours.

More By Dan Gelston.

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