Five decades of the Daytona 500
By Rick Houston - NASCAR Scene Contributing Writer
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
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Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images for NASCAR
DAYTONA, FL - FEBRUARY 18: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #29 Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet, celebrates on top of his car, after winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2007 in Daytona, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for NASCAR) *** Local Caption *** Kevin Harvick
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Completed in 1959, Daytona International Speedway was an audacious project from the very beginning. At 2.5 miles, it was the longest closed-course circuit NASCAR drivers had ever laid their eyes on. They could barely see from one end to the other — much less imagine taking those impossibly high-banked turns at racing speeds.
The track was so big, it called the basic physics of racing into question: Would the cars tumble down the 31-degree banking? Could the tires handle such incredible loads?
Jimmy Thompson, who raced from 1949-62, took one look at the facility and said, “There have been other tracks that separated the men from the boys. This is the track that will separate the brave from the weak after the boys are gone.”
Since then, the track’s main event, the Daytona 500, has become the premier stock car race in the country — if not the preeminent American auto race.
1959-68: Getting up to speed
Testing and qualifying for the first Daytona 500 began on Feb. 7, 1959, and
15 days later, the inaugural running of the 200-lap race delivered a finish that was almost too good to be true.
The race, which ran caution-free, ended in a dead heat, with Johnny Beauchamp and Lee Petty crossing the stripe together (see Best Races: 1959 and Behind The Scenes, page 48).
The following year, Junior Johnson “discovered” the draft and used it to drive to victory over Bobby Johns and Richard Petty.
Fireball Roberts dominated Speedweeks in 1961, winning the pole and his qualifying race. He was well ahead of Marvin Panch in the 500 when the engine let go in his Smokey Yunick-prepared Pontiac. Roberts rebounded in ’62 and won the race.
Richard Petty won his first Daytona 500 in 1964 and became the event’s first two-time winner just two years later.
As drivers adjusted to the superspeedway, they discovered a sinister side to racing at Daytona. One day before the 1960 Daytona 500, 37 cars crashed during a NASCAR Sportsman (now Nationwide) race. Twelve of those cars — nearly a third of those involved in the wreck — flipped.
In another wild event, Lee Petty’s racing career all but ended when his car crashed through a guardrail and sailed down the dirt embankment outside the track during the 1961 100-mile qualifying race. Richard Petty also tumbled outside the track during that same afternoon’s first qualifier.
Best races
1959: The ’59 Daytona 500, which had 59 starters, has become legend not only because it was the first, but also because it featured one of the most amazing finishes the sport has ever seen.
After a three-wide finish between Lee Petty, Johnny Beauchamp and the lapped car of Joe Weatherly, NASCAR needed three days to analyze film and photographic evidence before Petty was named the winner.
1963: Just 10 days before the 1963 Daytona 500, Tiny Lund helped pull Marvin Panch from his burning Maserati during a sports car test. Lund had never won a Grand National (now Sprint Cup) event. He didn’t even have a ride for the 500. But with Panch recovering from the crash, the Wood Brothers Racing team put Lund behind the wheel of Panch’s car. In a storybook ending, Lund went on to win the race.
1969-78: Coming into its own
Richard Petty added three more Daytona 500 wins to his resume during the event’s second decade and officially morphed from star driver to racing legend. At that point, he was the only driver with multiple wins in the Daytona 500. By the 20th running of the race, Petty had claimed five victories.
Aside from wins collected by Richard and Lee Petty, Petty Enterprises also won with Pete Hamilton in ’70.
Of course, a few Daytona 500 headlines didn’t include Petty Enterprises. After winning three Indianapolis 500s, A.J. Foyt also picked up a Daytona 500 victory in 1972.
Foyt and Mario Andretti, who won the 1967 Daytona 500 and the ’69 Indianapolis 500, are the only drivers with victories in both races. With the current open-wheel invasion, however, that could soon change.
Cale Yarborough, built like a fire hydrant, became the second two-time winner of the race with his 1977 win, which came nearly a decade after his first victory in ’68.
Best races
1975: With 10 laps to go, Benny Parsons trailed David Pearson by more than five seconds. Richard Petty, eight laps down after making a number of unscheduled pit stops, began drafting with Parsons. Then, with just over two laps to go, Pearson crashed, and the Petty-aided Parsons inherited the lead and scored the win.
1976: The battle between David Pearson and Richard Petty in the 1976 Daytona 500 set the standard for excitement in stock car racing’s biggest event. Pearson passed Petty coming down the backstretch on the final lap. Then, Petty got back underneath Pearson between Turns 3 and 4. Exiting the final corner, the two drivers made contact and spun. Petty’s car stalled less than 100 feet from the finish line, while Pearson’s battered car limped across the stripe to claim the checkered flag.
1979-88: The Great American Race
The 1979 Daytona 500 marked a turning point in NASCAR’s growth. Richard Petty’s sixth win was the first major NASCAR race to be shown live from start to finish, and the amazing event concluded with a bang (see Best Races: 1979). Seen on CBS by 16 million viewers, the telecast was the highest-rated program in its time slot, and it introduced an entirely new audience to NASCAR.
In 1980, Buddy Baker won the fastest Daytona 500 in history (177.602 mph) and Petty won his last 500 in ’81. Controversy marred the ’82 event. Bobby Allison’s bumper fell off after he made contact with Cale Yarborough on lap four, but Allison went on to win the race. Yarborough finished second, and his crew chief, current ESPN analyst Tim Brewer, charged that Allison’s bumper might have been rigged to come off in order to create an aerodynamic advantage.
“When we came down here and tested, we discovered that our car ran faster and handled better without the rear bumper,” Brewer said. “I was born in the morning, but it wasn’t this morning and it wasn’t yesterday morning.”
Yarborough popped up in the news a year later when he became the first driver to qualify for the Daytona 500 at more than 200 mph. Yarborough turned the 2.5-mile course at 200.503 mph on the first of his two qualifying laps, but he flipped and demolished his Chevrolet on the second lap.
Nevertheless, he won the 500 in a backup car, passing Buddy Baker on the final lap. He would make another last-lap pass — shooting by Darrell Waltrip — to win again in ’84.
Bill Elliott (above) won his first Daytona 500 in 1985, the first leg in his dash to the $1 million bonus for winning three of the sport’s four biggest races. He would win again in 1987, the last race without the horsepower-stealing restrictor plates. Elliott started from the pole after blistering the track at 210.364 mph.
Best races
1979: Images of Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison slamming into each other and then veering into the Turn 3 wall on the last lap are some of the most familiar in all of NASCAR.
Richard Petty inherited the lead, and hurtled to the sixth of his record seven Daytona 500 wins. Meanwhile, Yarborough, Allison and Allison’s older brother, Bobby, brawled in the infield. NASCAR frowned on the fracas — the drivers were later fined for their actions — but the fight had much of America talking about NASCAR for the first time.
1988: Davey Allison tried everything to make the pass for the lead, but nothing worked. He would finish an agonizingly close second to his father, Bobby.
Sadly, Bobby Allison’s driving career would end in a crash at Pocono just a few months later, and Bobby would lose sons Clifford and Davey to tragic accidents in the next five years.
1989-98: Finally!
Darrell Waltrip had three Cup championships to his credit and Dale Earnhardt had seven. Both drivers had won millions of dollars and dozens of races. Both had dominated the sport at one time or another, but neither had won the Daytona 500.
Though Waltrip needed 17 tries and Earnhardt required 20 attempts, both men finally made it to victory lane in the 500’s fourth decade.
“There is nothing like winning the Winston Cup championship,” Waltrip said after scoring a victory in 1989. “But for one single race, there is absolutely nothing like this.”
As excited as Waltrip was by his victory, it didn’t match the drama that surrounded Earnhardt’s failed bids. Every year, Earnhardt seemed to have a legitimate shot at taking the win, and every year, he came up short.
In addition to earlier failures, he cut a tire on the last lap of the 1990 Daytona 500 (see Best Races: 1990). The next year, he hit a seagull that damaged his car’s grille. In ’93, Dale Jarrett passed him for the lead as they flashed under the white flag. In ’97, Jeff Gordon made contact with him as they roared off Turn 2. Earnhardt flipped during the ensuing melee but gamely refired and drove back to the pits for repairs.
Then, in 1998, it all changed when Earnhardt won.
“My eyes watered up in the race car,” he said. “I don’t think I really cried. My eyes just watered up on that lap. I knew I was going to win unless something happened to the car.”
The Daytona 500, glory notwithstanding, endured two crushing blows before the ’94 event. Neil Bonnett, trying to come back from head injuries sustained in a 1990 wreck at Darlington, was killed on the first day of practice. Then, only four days later, rookie Rodney Orr lost his life in an on-track incident.
Best races
1990: Dale Earnhardt had the field covered. At one point, he led by 27 seconds. When Derrike Cope stayed on the track during the final caution, Earnhardt wasted little time in blowing back by him. As the white flag waved, Earnhardt had all but won the race.
Then, Earnhardt’s car shot up the track between Turns 3 and 4 after he cut a tire. Cope steered under him and went on to capture what would be the Daytona 500’s most stunning upset victory.
1998: Earnhardt had a glare that could pierce steel. But after he finally won the Daytona 500 on his 20th try, those same eyes danced with joy and relief in victory lane.
And everyone in the garage knew what the win meant to Earnhardt. As he came down pit road, crew members lined up to greet him.
1999-2007: Triumph and tragedy
Nothing rocked the NASCAR community more than Dale Earnhardt’s death on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
Drivers in each of NASCAR’s top three series had been killed the previous season (Cup driver Kenny Irwin, Busch driver Adam Petty and truck series driver Tony Roper), but this was Dale Earnhardt, the seven-time champion, the ultimate rags-to-riches story.
Earnhardt owned the cars that finished first and second that afternoon — those driven by Michael Waltrip, who’d never before won a Cup race, and Earnhardt’s son, Dale Jr. Also, Waltrip’s older brother, three-time NASCAR champion Darrell Waltrip, was calling the race in the television booth and cheering his brother on. It should’ve been the feel-good story to end all feel-good stories. Instead, with Earnhardt’s passing, Feb. 18, 2001, would be remembered as the darkest day in NASCAR history.
Best races
2004: Unlike his father, Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have to wait 20 years to win his first Daytona 500.
Junior took the checkered flag in just his fifth try. He’d already won a Cup race there, in the summer following his father’s death, as well as three Busch Series events.
Tony Stewart held the lead late in the race, but with 19 laps to go, Junior roared past him and cruised the rest of the way for the win.
2007: Kevin Harvick edged Mark Martin as they flashed across the finish line. Moments later, Clint Bowyer took the checkered flag on his roof. The finish created a stir of controversy (why, with Martin running out front, did NASCAR wait so long to bring out the caution after Kyle Busch and others started spinning?) Regardless, Harvick got the trophy.
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Bill Elliott
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