High Banks & Heroes: 65 Years at Daytona International Speedway
HIGH BANKS & HEROES
65 YEARS AT DAYTONA, HOME OF THE GREAT AMERICAN RACE
Editors Ryan Pritt
Dinah Voyles Pulver
Chris Vinel
Ken Willis
Photography: Images without credit are from The Daytona Beach News-Journal archives. Images not part of the Daytona Beach News-Journal archives are identified by the source of the images and are reproduced with their permission.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher.
Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. www.pediment.com • Printed in Canada.
This book is an unofficial account of Daytona 500 history and is not endorsed by Daytona International Speedway.
Foreword
I’ll never forget the first time I saw Daytona International Speedway. None of us had ever seen the place, not even a picture. We’d just heard about it. We went in through the tunnel in Turn 4 and, as we came out into the infield, it was just massive. The first and second corners looked like a wall. Everything else was just flat. We were used to little dirt tracks. Darlington was the biggest thing we had ever run. None of us had ever seen a 2.5-mile racetrack like Daytona. It was almost overwhelming. Of course, I was just a 21-year-old kid, so anything new was good. And I knew from that first time I saw it, Daytona was going to be good for me.
When we went to Daytona, I had just started driving. I was still learning every race. My first race at Daytona was the convertible race. I remember we came up on lapped traffic and just pulled out and went around them. The next thing I knew, I looked in the mirror and those lapped cars were running right along with us! I’m sitting there and I said to myself, “I know what I’m going to do.”
It was the last few laps and, as we came off Turn 2 onto the backstretch — I think I’m running third — I pulled out and just blew by the first two cars. I thought, “Man, this is easy!” Then, I went through Turns 3 and 4, and as we came off the corner, they went back by me! I just made my move too quick.
Guys like my dad, Fireball Roberts and Curtis Turner, they were used to nudging or waiting for someone to slip to get by them, but Daytona was a completely different kind of racing. I didn’t have the experience they had. I didn’t have the old habits. I didn’t have to unlearn old ways. I was learning new. I never lost that. For me, Daytona always felt like my first time.
I came along at the right time, when NASCAR and racing were changing. Daytona was the start of the Superspeedway Era.
We’d go to Daytona every February, and each year, Daytona got bigger and bigger and more important. I won my first race there in 1964 and it changed everything. If I hadn’t won another race that whole year, I was still a “winner.” I never forgot that.
Daytona and I grew up together in a lot of ways. The more people heard about Daytona, the more people heard about Richard Petty. I was fortunate enough to win the Daytona 500 seven times, each one was special. But I think about the ones I lost just as much, especially 1976 with me and David Pearson.
Bill France had the vision and the dream. He knew from the beginning that Daytona had to be special. It was special then and it still is now. When you think of horse racing, you think of the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs. Golf? You think of The Masters at Augusta. IndyCar Racing? You think of Indianapolis. When anyone thinks of NASCAR, Daytona is always at the top of that list.
I don’t know where the sport would be if there was no Daytona. I know for sure it wouldn’t be what it is today. As for me, every year I pass through that tunnel in Turn 4 and come out into the infield, I’m right back to being that 21-year-old kid again.
I love Daytona.
OPPOSITE: Richard Petty, seven-time Daytona 500 winner, seven-time NASCAR champion, known by all as "The King" of stock-car racing.
— RICHARD PETTY
Early Years
More than a half-century before Daytona’s big speedway was transitioning from dream to reality, the area’s beachside sand delivered the “Birthplace of Speed.” It began in 1902 when a pair of visitors — Alexander Winton and Ransom Olds — roared side-byside across the hard-packed beach at 50+ miles per hour in revolutionary equipment known as automobiles. And just like that, the race was on and nothing was ever the same in Daytona Beach.
OPPOSITE: Malcolm Campbell and the Bluebird racer in front of the Ocean Pier in 1931. HALIFAX HISTORICAL MUSEUM
Over time, the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah would become synonymous with land-speed records, but between the early 1900s and mid-1930s, Daytona Beach provided the stage upon which man and machine stretched the limits.
The first official mention of a land-speed record on Daytona Beach came in 1906, when Fred Marriott piloted the Stanley Steamer at better than 127 mph over a measured mile. Nearly three decades later, the final Daytona record-setter was Sir Malcolm Campbell, who reached 276 mph in his famed Bluebird, capping an eight-year stretch when the speed record changed hands eight times on the beach.
Just six months later, Campbell took his Bluebird to Bonneville, topped 300 mph, and Daytona Beach was suddenly off the land-speed radar. The Daytona records were usually accomplished during an annual “Tournament of Speed,” which drew visitors to the area to witness advances in the still-adolescent automobile industry.
With Daytona Beach replaced by Bonneville, local officials quickly searched for a replacement and a way to maintain the area’s image as a racing hotbed. Stockcar racing was in its infancy but one of its proponents was a tall mechanic who’d recently moved to Daytona Beach from Washington D.C. — Bill France, who worked on cars during the week and occasionally raced them on weekends.
A beach-and-road course was developed, but initial races in 1936 and ’37 lost money. France (“Big Bill” was the common moniker) was asked to take over promotion of the race in 1938, and similar to that early seed planted by Ransom Olds and Alexander Winton, change arrived and the advances came quickly.
The racing stopped for World War II but returned in 1946. NASCAR became an official organization two years later, raising its flag over the annual “Speedweeks” festivities, which included straight-line speed trials, drag-racing and dirt-tracking at local facilities, but above all, the headlining NASCAR stock-car race
The evolution of speed records set on Daytona Beach:
1904 W.K. Vanderbilt, Mercedes, 92.30 mph
1905 Arthur MacDonald, Napier, 104.65 mph
1905 H.L. Bowden, Mercedes, 109.75 mph
* 1906 Fred Marriott, Stanley Rocket, 127.66 mph
1910 Barney Oldfield, Benz, 131.72 mph
1911 Robert Burman, Benz, 140.87 mph
1919 Ralph DePalma, Packard, 149.88 mph
1920 Tommy Milton, Duesenberg, 156.03 mph
1922 Sig Haughdahl, Wisconsin Special, 182.27 mph
* 1927 Sir Henry Segrave, Sunbeam, 203.79 mph
* 1928 Sir Malcolm Campbell, Bluebird, 206.96 mph
* 1928 Ray Keech, Triplex, 207.55 mph
* 1929 Sir Henry Segrave, Golden Arrow, 231.45 mph
* 1931 Sir Malcolm Campbell, Bluebird, 246.09 mph
* 1932 Sir Malcolm Campbell, Bluebird, 253.97 mph
* 1933: Sir Malcolm Campbell, Bluebird, 272.46 mph
* 1935 Sir Malcolm Campbell, Bluebird, 276.82 mph
* recognized as world land-speed record at the time
LEFT: March 8, 1935, Malcolm Campbell tries for a record.
OPPOSITE: Sir Malcolm Campbell's Bluebird is on display at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America's museum, located outside Turn 4 at Daytona International Speedway.
ABOVE: Barney Oldfield, a pioneer of speed in the early days of the automobile, aboard Alexander Winton's famed Bullet 2 in Daytona Beach, January 1904.
ABOVE: Riders leave the asphalt of South Atlantic Avenue and return to the beach during an early "Cycle Week" in Daytona Beach.
Bill France Sr. began promoting stockcar races on Daytona’s beach-and-road course in 1937, more than a decade before NASCAR’s first official season. This was written the week of the final beach race in 1958.
Bill France didn’t go to college, but a lot of folks think he’s earned a “Ph.M.” anyway — doctor of meteorology.
In an outdoors promotion business where the weather (especially rain) can ruin you, the NASCAR president has enjoyed fabulous luck for 20 years. Bill has a simple formula for scheduling the Daytona Beach races, and he’s used it every year. First he studies the tide charts to find out on which Sundays in February the tide will be low at a suitable time in the afternoon to run his big race. Then he checks up on the moon. He selects as his race date the low-tide Sunday which most closely follows the new moon and precedes the full moon. He believes that the weather here is untrustworthy, as a rule, on a declining moon.
The U.S. Weather Bureau says France’s moon system is malarkey. Maybe so, but he hasn’t had a rained-out stock-car race here in 20 years.
— BERNARD KAHN
ABOVE LEFT: Fans pack the North Turn grandstand and crowd the fence line inside the track to watch cars roll through the turn and onto the blacktop during early NASCAR racing on the beach.
LEFT: Spectators line the beach and crowd the turns to watch early stock-car racing on Daytona's beach-and-road course.
The 1960s
In the mid-1950s, NASCAR founder Big Bill France stood atop a hunk of jutted concrete alongside the local airport, looking out at nearly 450 acres of gnarly earth west of town.
This was the place, he was told — the only place available, in fact. So he stared and imagined his dream racetrack coming to fruition on this unlikely patch of snake-infested mud and weeds.
Oh, did he dream.
OPPOSITE: Richard Petty (43) started alongside pole winner Paul Goldsmith to start the 1964 Daytona 500.
The Winners
1960: Junior Johnson
1961: Marvin Panch
1962: Fireball Roberts
1963: Tiny Lund
1964: Richard Petty
1965: Fred Lorenzen
1966: Richard Petty
1967: Mario Andretti
1968: Cale Yarborough
1969: Lee Roy Yarbrough
The dream came true by decade’s end, and 65 years later, you can find farms and deserts and metropolitan hubs at all corners of the globe where the locals are very familiar with what Big Bill envisioned way back when. Daytona.
NASCAR was birthed in Daytona Beach in the late 1940s, and after another decade of racing on the beach’s hard-packed sands, Big Bill reshaped the muck and carved his mammoth track into racing lore. Daytona International Speedway was the showplace, and the Daytona 500 would become the showcase, eventually and unapologetically adorning the label of “The Great American Race.”
ABOVE: Richard Petty would repeat this scene six more times in his unmatched career.
OPPOSITE: Tommy Herbert's tumbling crash down the backstretch in 1960 was the first serious accident in Daytona 500 history. He suffered a broken arm and eye injury.
1960
Date: Feb. 14
Winner: Junior Johnson
Organization: John Masoni
Car make, model: Chevrolet Impala
Average speed: 124.74
Winnings: $19,600
Pole winner: Cotton Owens
Pole speed: 149.892 mph
Most laps led: Junior Johnson, 67
Lead changes: 13
Cars in the field: 68
Cautions, laps: 4 for 32
Distance: 200 laps, 500 miles
Race time: 4:00.30
Top 10: 1. Junior Johnson; 2. Bobby Johns; 3. Richard Petty; 4. Lee Petty; 5. Johnny Allen (-1 lap); 6. Ned Jarrett (-1 lap); 7. Curtis Turner (-1 lap); 8. Fred Lorenzen (-2 laps); 9. Rex White (-2 laps); 10. Emanuel Zervakis (-3 laps)
Fast facts: In the leadup to the 500, CBS aired compact-car races and races for the pole from Daytona, marking the first television coverage of NASCAR. The week was marred by horrific crashes including a 37-car pileup in a Modified-Sportsman race on Feb. 13. Tommy Irwin flipped his Ford into Lake Lloyd during a qualifying race and had to swim to safety. The 1960 Daytona 500 holds the distinction of being the slowest of all time in terms of average speed. The carnage was so bad, NASCAR canceled scheduled events at Palmetto Speedway and Hollywood (Fla.) Speedway in the weeks that followed. Johnson donated his winnings to charity. The 68 cars on the starting grid are the most of any Daytona 500.
Date: Feb. 16
Winner: Benny Parsons
Organization: L.G. DeWitt
Car make, model: Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna
Average speed: 153.649
Winnings: $43,905
Pole winner: Donnie Allison
Pole speed: 185.827 mph
Most laps led: David Pearson, 74
Lead changes: 19
Cars in the field: 40
Cautions, laps: 3 for 21
Distance: 200 laps, 500 miles
Race time: 3:15.15
Top 10: 1. Benny Parsons; 2. Bobby Allison (-1 lap); 3. Cale Yarborough (-2 laps); 4. David Pearson (-2 laps); 5. Ramo Stott (-3 laps); 6. Dave Marcis (-3 laps); 7. Richard Petty (-8 laps); 8. Richie Panch (-9 laps); 9. GC Spencer (-9 laps); 10. James Hylton (-11 laps)
Fast facts: Due to a large early crash and engine failures, only 14 cars finished the race still running, an event-record low. Pearson seemed poised to go to Victory Lane but spun out with two laps to go after contact while trying to put another lap on Cale Yarborough.
Best story
Benny Parsons solidified his stock-car standing by winning the 1975 Daytona 500 with a major assist from Richard Petty. Petty finished eight laps behind Parsons due to radiator problems, but had a very fast car.
Toward the end, Parsons drafted behind Petty and would win easily when David Perason and Cale Yarborough crashed while giving chase. Parsons was the only driver to finish on the lead lap that day.
ABOVE: Bill France Sr. is flanked by a pair of Daytona 500 dignitaries before the 1975 race. At left is Argentina's ambassador to the United States, Grand Marshal ALejandro Orfila. At right is country crooner Charlie Rich, the race's honorary starter.
LEFT: Two years after winning the Winston Cup championship, Benny Parsons added another big trophy to his collection after winning the Daytona 500.
Date: Feb. 19
Winner: Cale Yarborough
Organization: Ranier-Lundy
Car make, model: Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Average speed: 150.994
Winnings: $160,300
Pole winner: Cale Yarborough
Pole speed: 201.848 mph
Most laps led: Cale Yarborough, 89
Lead changes: 34
Cars in the field: 42
Cautions, laps: 7 for 39
Distance: 200 laps, 500 miles
Race time: 3:18.41
Top 10: 1. Cale Yarborough; 2. Dale Earnhardt; 3. Darrell Waltrip; 4. Neil Bonnett; 5. Bill Elliott; 6. Harry Gant; 7. Ricky Rudd (-1 lap); 8. Geoff Bodine (-1 lap); 9. David Pearson (-2 laps); 10. Jody Ridley (-2 laps)
Fast facts: Yarborough used an eerily similar, last-lap, backstretch pass as he did in 1983, this time on Darrell Waltrip, and became the first driver since Fireball Roberts in 1962 to win the pole, a Thursday qualifying race, the 500, and lead the most laps. Bodine finished eighth driving for a team then known as All-Star Racing in its first race. That organization is now known to the world as Hendrick Motorsports.
Seats were hard to come by at the 1984 Daytona 500.
OPPOSITE RIGHT: NASCAR Winston Cup driver Cale Yarborough celebrates in victory lane after winning the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 19, 1984. MANNY RUBIO / USA TODAY SPORTS
RIGHT:
This & That
Cale Yarborough, in 1984, became the first driver at Daytona to qualify at over 200 mph. He’d actually cracked the barrier the previous year, but on his second lap his car flipped coming off Turn 4 and the pole run was disqualified.
This & That
» Davey Allison, who had finished behind his father Bobby Allison in the 1988 Daytona 500, ruled the day in 1992 in the No. 28 Ford owned and cared for by Robert Yates. Allison used that win as a springboard to a championship run. Sadly, he lost the 1992 title to Alan Kulwicki, then both drivers lost their lives in aviation incidents in 1993.
» Jeff Gordon scored two Daytona 500 wins in this period of time. He got the 1997 victory after Dale Earnhardt was in a nasty wreck. Gordon won the race again in 1999 with a daring pass of leader Rusty Wallace. Ricky Rudd was emerging from pit road as Gordon was making an inside pass on Wallace. Sensing disaster, Wallace lifted which allowed Gordon to take the lead — for the last 11 laps of the race.
ABOVE: The No. 3 Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt rolls upside down after colliding with Jeff Gordon and Ernie Irvan as Terry Labonte drives past in turn two during the Daytona 500 Race Feb. 16,1997.
DAVID MILLS / THE LEDGER
1996
Date: Feb. 18
Winner: Dale Jarrett
Organization: Robert Yates Racing
Car make, model: Ford Thunderbird
Average speed: 154.308
Winnings: $360,775
Pole winner: Dale Earnhardt
Pole speed: 189.51 mph
Most laps led: Terry Labonte, 44
Lead changes: 32
Cars in the field: 43
Cautions, laps: 6 for 26
Distance: 200 laps, 500 miles
Race time: 3:14.25
Top 10: 1. Dale Jarrett; 2. Dale Earnhardt; 3. Ken Schrader; 4. Mark Martin; 5. Jeff Burton; 6. Wally Dallenbach Jr.; 7. Ted Musgrave; 8. Bill Elliott; 9. Ricky Rudd; 10. Michael Waltrip
Fast facts: Pit strategy came into play with Jarrett taking four tires on the teams’ final stops while Earnhardt took two. Once Jarrett took the lead with 23 laps to go, Earnhardt could never maneuver back around.
OPPOSITE RIGHT: Dale Earnhart waits for the 1996 Daytona 500 to begin.
The 2000s
The tragic finish of the 2001 Daytona 500 — the death of Dale Earnhardt, one of NASCAR’s most beloved stars — ushered in an era of dramatic safety improvements to cars and equipment.
OPPOSITE: Dale Earnhardt visited Bill France Jr. in the Victory Lane bleachers after winning another IROC race in 2000.
2001
Date: Feb. 18
Winner: Michael Waltrip
Organization: Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
Car make, model: Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Average speed: 161.783
Winnings: $1,331,185
Pole winner: Bill Elliott
Pole speed: 183.565 mph
Most laps led: Ward Burton, 53
Lead changes: 49
Cars in the field: 43
Cautions, laps: 3 for 14
Distance: 200 laps, 500 miles
Race time: 3:05.26
Top 10: 1. Michael Waltrip; 2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.; 3. Rusty Wallace; 4. Ricky Rudd; 5. Bill Elliott; 6. Mike Wallace; 7. Sterling Marlin; 8. Bobby Hamilton; 9. Jeremy Mayfield; 10. Stacy Compton
Fast facts: Waltrip’s win was his first in 462 starts and brother Darrell Waltrip, after joining the Fox booth, was making his first call as a broadcaster. He broke down in tears as Michael Waltrip took the checkered flag, a moment that would have ranked among the best in NASCAR history if not for the crash that broke out in Turn 4 of the last lap. Earnhardt’s death will forever mar the event, but it spurred a safety revolution that paid dividends for years to com. Elliott won his fourth career pole, tying Cale Yarbrough and Buddy Baker for the most all-time.
Most memorable
The finish of the 2001 500 was seared into the hearts of NASCAR fans forever when seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt was killed in a last-lap crash. His death remains the only death in the history of the race. Earnhardt was running third behind Michael Waltrip and his son, Dale Jr., both driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc., when he was involved in a crash with Sterling Marlin and Ken Schrader as the pack thundered through the final turn. His car slammed into the outside wall and the legendary Intimidator was killed instantly. Waltrip’s celebration in Victory Lane was interrupted when Schrader went in to tell Waltrip what he’d seen. The crash triggered a decade of safety improvements throughout the sport, including required head-and-neck restraints and the addition of safety barriers along key walls at many race tracks.
ABOVE LEFT: Rescue crews attempt to extricate Dale Earnhardt after a fatal wreck in Turn 4 on the last lap of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, 2001.
BELOW FAR LEFT: Michael Waltrip in Victory Lane, celebrating his first career win, before learning the bad news about the Dale Earnhardt crash.
LEFT: A member of Michael Waltrip's winning team makes an emotional phone call after learning of the seriousness of Dale Earnhardt's last-lap crash.
2021
Date: Feb. 14
Winner: Michael McDowell
Organization: Front Row Motorsports
Car make, model: Ford Mustang
Average speed: 144.416
Pole winner: Alex Bowman
Pole speed: 191.261 mph
Most laps led: Denny Hamlin, 98
Lead changes: 22
Cars in the field: 40
Cautions, laps: 7 for 40
Distance: 200 laps, 500 miles
Race time: 3:27.44
Top 10: 1. Michael McDowell; 2. Chase Elliott; 3. Austin Dillon; 4. Kevin Harvick; 5. Denny Hamlin; 6. Ryan Preece; 7. Ross Chastain; 8. Jamie McMurray; 9. Corey LaJoie; 10. Kyle Larson
Fast facts: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, attendance was limited with fans required to wear masks and practice social distancing. McDowell earned his first career victory in his 358th career start as a 100-to-1 longshot. It was the third victory ever for Front Row Motorsports.
RIGHT: The 2020 Daytona 500 saw rain on Sunday and a fiery finish on Monday night.
This & That
» Following his 2020 crash, Ryan Newman missed the next three races on the schedule. His main injury was listed as a “brain bruise.”
» Michael McDowell and Austin Cindric became the eighth and ninth drivers to get their first NASCAR Cup Series win in the Great American Race. The others: Tiny Lund (1963), Mario Andretti (1967), Pete Hamilton (1970), Derrike Cope (1990), Sterling Marlin (1994), Michael Waltrip (2001) and Trevor Bayne (2011).
» Each Daytona 500 in this decade has included at least one and usually multiple versions of the “Big One.” The 2023 race had four, featuring between seven and 13 cars in each.
ABOVE: Michael McDowell (left) won the race to the checkered flag and made the 2021 Daytona 500 the first win of his Cup Series career.
