Nascar History, Daytona 500, 1979

Welcome to my Nascar History lesson for the day.

I decided I might start throwin some history in my blogs for those newer fans that don't know about the good ole days, and how this sport got to where it is today. I know there was a large influx of fans after Jeff Gordon came along, then another influx after the passing of Dale Earnhardt, and many of those fans are unaware of the stories and races that led us to where we are today.

I couldn't think of a better way to start this experiment than with the 1979 Daytona 500.

In 1979, the Daytona 500 was the second race of the season. The first race was in
the Winston Western 500 in Rivierside CA.
This Daytona 500 was the first Nascar race televised from the drop of the green
to the checkered flag. In fact, it was the first 500 mile race to be broadcast
from start to finish live. Even the Indy 500 wasn't given this attention, as it
was on tape delay and aired in the evening.
Many say this is the most important Nascar race in history.
The race was called by the legendary Ken Squire, David Hobbs and Chris Economaki.
MRN did a radio broadcast, called by Dick Bergren.
Nascar Legend Buddy Baker sat on the pole. Unfortunatley, he lost his engine after
only 38 laps. Others that qualified in the top 5 is a who's who of Nascar Legends.
Donnie Allison, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, and Benny Parsons.

Early in the race, on lap 32, Donnie Allison got loose and forced Cale and Bobby
Allison to take evasive action. All three cars spun through the backstretch infield.
Cale's had to take his car in and repair it due to the damage. He fell 2 laps down, but
made those 2 laps up through a series of caution flags.

On the final lap of the race, Donnie Allison was the leader and Cale was drafting
behind him. When Cale went to slingshot past Donnie, Donnie tried to block him.
Cale wasn't one to give in, he pulled alongside Donnie, his left side tires went
down into the grass, which was wet and muddy. Cale lost control and hit Donnie's
car halfway down the backstretch. Fighting to gain control of their cars, they made
contact three more times before they locked up for good. They finally crashed into
the wall in turn three. They came down the banking and came to rest in the infield.
As if that wasn't exciting enough, Here's where the real fun starts.
They got out of their cars and started arguing there on the infield. After they
stopped arguing, Donnies brother Bobby, who was one lap down, stopped his car
by them, got out, and a fight broke out between he and Cale. (who knows who won
the fight. Bobby says he did, Cale says he did)
Richard Petty, who was over a half lap behind, went on to win the race.
With the fight in the Infield, Petty's win was shown for about 2 seconds.
The story made the front page of the New York Times Sports page. NASCAR was here.

Reactions from Yarborough and the Allisons were not surprisingly different.
Yarborough said "I was going to pass him and win the race, but he turned left
and crashed me. So, hell, I crashed him back. If I wasn't going to get back
around, he wasn't either."
Allison said "The track was mine until he hit me in the back," he says. "He
got me loose and sideways, so I came back to get what was mine. He wrecked me,
I didn't wreck him."

The top three finishers were Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, and AJ Foyt.
Donnie and Cale wound up coming on home for 4th and 5th respectively.
A young rookie named Dale Earnhardt came in 8th.

Other notable finishers in this race,
16. Rookie Terry Labonte
17. Richard Childress
18. Benny Parsons
24. Dave Marcis
29. Geoffery Bodine
31. Ricky Rudd
32. Neil Bonnett
33. rookie Harry Gant
37. David Pearson
and Buddy Baker came home 40th.

Here is a nice video on You Tube from this event....



If you have something you would like to add to this, please feel free to leave a comment. Would love to hear from anyone that was there, or saw it live on TV.

class dismissed.