The Camaro Club (UK)

The 'Best Damn Garage in Town' is gone.

The last building in a forgotten complex of structures on a five acre site once belonging to Henry “Smokey” Yunick was destroyed in a fire Monday night in Daytona Beach.

Daytona Beach Fire Rescue responded to the building just before 7:00 p.m. only to find it already engulfed in flames.

According to a spokesperson from the Daytona Beach FD, due to the age of the building and because there were still chemicals, asbestos and tires inside, firefighters were forced to battle the blaze from outside the structure.

Firefighters were able to prevent the flames from spreading to neighboring structures but 90 minutes after they arrived, all that was left were the block walls of the once famous NASCAR landmark.

Best known his liberal interpretation of NASCAR’s rulebook, the ‘Best Damn Garage in Town’ thrived during the 1950’s and into the 1970’s. Yunick fielded cars in NASCAR’s premier touring series now known as the Sprint Cup Series and won the Daytona 500 twice with legendry drivers Marvin Paunch and Fireball Roberts in 1961 and 1963.

The Best Damn Garage in Town was a five acre complex with several buildings where Smokey made a living and did his own fabricating, machine work, assembly, and dyno testing. He was a two time NASCAR mechanic of the year and often at odds with NASCAR officials. Yunick was also an innovator,pilot, inventor and a founding member of Embry-Riddle University.

Leukemia claimed the life of Henry “Smokey” Yunick in 2001 and in his will he specified that the complex be sold, not to a museum or historical society, but to the highest bidder and then torn down. The complex had been sold in 2004 with plans for condos to be built on the site, but that never materialized. Monday night Smokey's wish came true as the final building became nothing more than a pile of rubble.

Firefighters remained on the scene late into the night Monday watching for hotspots. Investigators from the state fire marshal’s office started investigating the blaze early Tuesday. Several witnesses reported seeing several people near the building not long before flames appeared.