The Daytona International Raceway is one of the most hallowed racetracks in the U.S. so its top speed record is pretty special in its own right.

Before Wednesday, the record has stood since 1987 when Bill Elliot hit 210.364 mph in a NASCAR->ke3635 cup car during one of the qualifying sessions leading up to the Daytona 500.

When the click hit Thursday, Elliot's record went by the wayside, unseated by Ford Racing and its incredible Daytona Prototype Race Car.

Built and developed with the help of Riley Technologies and Roush->ke1434 Yates Engines, the Daytona Prototype->ke146 Racecar and driver, Colin Braun, managed to accomplish what nobody in the past 26 years was able to do. It not only broke Elliot's top speed record; it downright demolished it with a 222.971 mph top speed.

It's an incredible achievement that was aided in large part by the racecar's 3.5-liter, V-6 EcoBoost engine. The output for the prototype has yet to be disclosed, but if it's capable of hitting 222 mph without breaking a sweat, there's no denying that there are a whole lot of horses churning under its hood.

Click past the jump to read about the 2014 Ford Riley Technologies Daytona Prototype

2014 Ford Riley Technologies Daytona Prototype

In addition to attempting -- and breaking -- Bill Elliot's longstanding top speed record at the Daytona International Raceway, Ford Racing also built the Daytona Prototype Race Car with the intention of running it at the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship series.

As was previously mentioned, the new racecar was developed in cooperation with Riley Technologies and designed by lead Ford production designer Garen Nicoghosian, and Ford Racing chief aerodynamicist Bernie Marcus took the reins on tweaking the car’s aerodynamics.

Also, in case you didn't know, the TUDOR United SportsCar Racing is a new sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada that will debut in 2014 with the season opening Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. The new series comes as a merger between two existing North American sports car racing series, the American Le Mans Series and Rolex Sports Car Series.

As part of its schedule, the series will five different series, featuring two sports prototype categories and two grand tourer classes.