#28 - The Daytona 500 1965-1970
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04/05/2018 Matt McLaughlin |
(Editor’s Note) In 1997
- 1998, Matt McLaughlin penned a special Anthology of historical pieces in
honor of the 50th Anniversary of NASCAR entitled "50 Years of NASCAR
Racing." Matt has entrusted the entire collection, minus one or two that
were misfiled back then and cannot be salvaged, to my tender, loving care.
As NASCAR turns 70, the
Anthology itself will celebrate a 20th anniversary through 2018, and will run
again here on Race Fans Forever. As before, there is no record of which pieces
came first, so it will appear in the sequence presented earlier. Please, sit
back and enjoy as you take a journey back through the pages of history and
perhaps relive a memory or two.
As always, many thanks
to Matt, and God bless you my friend. ~PattyKay
The Hemi Chryslers had
dominated the 1964 Daytona Speed Weeks, but it was a very different picture
when the 1965 event rolled around. The big Hemis had been outlawed and Chrysler
was boycotting NASCAR racing. Besides the Dodge and Plymouth cars being out of
action, so were their factory drivers, sitting on the sidelines at Chrysler's
insistence. As a result, attendance at the 500, which had approached 70,000 in
1964, was off to less than 59,000 and even at that, some people think Bill
France was overstating the number to make it look like less of a disaster.
Darel Dieringer held off a determined charge by Ned Jarrett in the final corner
of the first qualifier to take the win in a Mercury. The second qualifier was
another one of those carnage strewn events Daytona sometimes produced. With the
Chrysler teams sitting out, a lot of rookie drivers saw an opportunity to make
the big show. Some of them had never competed on any track bigger than a
half-mile before in their lives. One of them, Rod Eulenfeld,
spun out on the very first lap and came back onto the track, triggering a
13-car pileup that involved a lot of the other rookies as well. Buck Baker was
also injured in the pileup. Throughout the track's history, the Daytona 500 has
been marred by terrible and occasionally tragic wrecks involving rookies
running on the massive speedway in traffic for the first time. Conventional
wisdom is a rookie who gets through his qualifier incident free will be all
right in the 500. Many times they are not. Fred Lorenzen appeared to have the
second qualifier sewn up when he made a rare mental error. He passed Junior
Johnson on the 39th lap of the event, and as he crossed the line, thought the
race was over and lifted off the throttle a lap early. Junior stormed back past
him and won the race the next lap, over a highly flustered Lorenzen.
The day of the 1965 Daytona 500 dawned dark and
dreary, with heavy rains in the forecast. NASCAR tried desperately to get the
event in anyway. Junior Johnson looked stout early but lost a tire and slugged
the wall a ton, fortunately doing a lot more damage to the wall than his
person, but unfortunately ending his day. That left Marvin Panch and Fred
Lorenzen to race each other and the rain. As the rain began falling, Panch
tried a desperate high side move to get around Lorenzen getting back to the
yellow, fearing the rain would end the event. Neither driver
could see, due to the heavy downpour, and Fred drifted high. The two
cars collided and Panch spun out while Lorenzen managed to regain control. The
race was red flagged five laps later on lap 133, and after a long rain delay
was called as darkness fell. Fred Lorenzen was given credit for winning the
Daytona 500. Fords finished 1-13 due to the lack of Chrysler competition, a
record that will probably never be broken. Eventual 1965 champion, Ned Jarrett
finished fifth that rainy day.
The Daytona 500 was run under threatening skies again
in 1966, both literally and figuratively. Rain was in the forecast for the
afternoon of the big event, and while the Ford teams were present at the race,
there were threats of a Ford boycott after the race if NASCAR didn't approve
the 427 SOHC engine. Both 100-mile qualifiers that year were decided by last
lap passes. Paul Goldsmith passed Richard Petty down the final straightaway to
the checkers to claim the first race by a car length, leading another Chrysler
1-2-3 finish. In the second event, Earl Balmer in a
Dodge passed Jim Hurtubise in a Plymouth on the final
lap, while Dick Hutcherson finished third in a Holman and Moody Ford to salvage
a little honor for the blue oval brigade.
The story of the 1966 Daytona 500 was once again
Richard Petty in the blue #43 Plymouth. He took the lead for the final time on
lap 113 and was never headed, once again finishing on a lap by himself. In
doing so he became the first two time winner of the February Daytona classic.
Rain washed out the event with two laps left to run, to help end the other
competitors' misery. A side story involved tires, which were failing left and
right. Jim Hurtubise seemed to have the worst problem
chunking tires. Rubber shrapnel from his disintegrating tires smashed out the
windshield of many front runners, eliminating them from contention. By coincidence
those rubber chunks took out more top name Fords than fellow Mopar drivers. In
a remark he probably later regretted making, Curtis Turner blamed it on
Chrysler strategy. Other than Petty's dominance, the results weren't all that
lopsided. Cale Yarborough wound up second in a Banjo Matthews' Ford, followed
by David Pearson in a Dodge, and Fed Lorenzen in another Ford. Still, Ford was
steamed that Petty had shown them up so badly and shortly thereafter began a
boycott of their own, pulling their factory teams. Daytona ticket sales had
rebounded nicely to an announced 90,000 mark, with all the top drivers on hand,
but once again a factory boycott crippled ticket sales throughout most of the
rest of the season.
In 1967 Chrysler was once again considering a boycott,
but their frustrated drivers, including Richard Petty, announced they would not
honor a second boycott. The focus returned to racing at Daytona. The first
qualifier race that year was an exciting event with NASCAR regular LeeRoy
Yarbrough passing Indy car legend AJ Foyt with five laps to go and holding off Foyt's determined attempts to retake the lead. Tiny Lund,
who was a lap down, moved over to let LeeRoy by, and in doing so, blocked one
of Foyt's attempts at passing. After the race, AJ
showed that famous temper that reflared at Texas in
the IRL victory lane this year, storming around insisting that Lund had
purposely gotten in his way, and threatening not to run the 500. He asked what
a NASCAR official was going to do about that… to which the calm reply was,
"Well… I guess we'll just have to move everybody else up one starting
place." Foyt backed down and ran the race. Team strategy won the race for
Fred Lorenzen in the second qualifier, as the thinking man's driver played
tortoise to the hares in the early part of the event, letting Richard Petty,
Cale Yarborough and Mario Andretti fight over the lead tooth and nail. They all
had to stop for a splash and go in the pits, while Lorenzen ran the entire
event without a pit stop and took the win. Curtis Turner, who had shocked
everyone by taking the pole in a Smokey Yunick
Chevelle, started on the pole of the first qualifying race, but parked the car
after a single lap, not wanting to risk wrecking it before the big dance on
Sunday.
The mechanical attrition rate in that year's 500 was
atrocious, with early front runners and favorites LeeRoy Yarbrough and Curtis
Turner both sidelined by engine failures. David Pearson also lost an engine in
his Dodge on lap 159 while duking it out with Andretti for the lead. Holman and
Moody teammates Fred Lorenzen and Mario Andretti were the cream of the crop
that day, eventually running on a lap of their own. Everyone was waiting for
crafty stock car veteran Lorenzen to slingshot by Andretti in the final lap or
two, but Richard Petty's Plymouth suffered an uncharacteristic engine failure
with two laps to go, oiling down the track and ending the event under caution.
Mario pulled his blue and gold Ford into victory circle that day for his first
and only win in the NASCAR series. Andretti remains the only driver to win the
Daytona 500, The Indy 500 and the Formula One championship. That Daytona 500
was one of the few races Richard Petty lost that year.
The 1968 Daytona 500 marked the debut of the Ford
Motor Company's aero friendly Ford Torino, and its sister car, the Mercury
Cyclone, both of which had been designed with stock car racing in mind, and
were notably more aerodynamic than the taxi cab Mopars.
The Mercurys were thought to have an advantage over
their Torino counterparts and many of the traditional Ford teams switched to
the Mercs on the big tracks like Daytona. Richard Petty had an unusual black
vinyl top installed on his blue Plymouth at the 500 that year. Petty crewmen
were whispering in other team members' ears the vinyl roofs pebbled surface
helped diffuse the air flow and made the car quicker. Other teams began
scrambling to install vinyl roofs on their cars. Petty was seen rubbing baby
powder on his roof and again his team whispered the baby powder helped the car
slip through the air. Other teams began rubbing baby powder on their cars. In
later years Petty would admit it was all a prank, to play on the "monkey
see-monkey do" attitudes other teams had taken towards the Petty crew
after the way they dominated in 1967. Others still claim Richard's guys did
some surgery to the roof area of his Plymouth to make the car more aerodynamic
and used the vinyl roof to help cover their treachery.
The qualifying races were rained out that year, but
that's not to say there was no pre-race excitement. '67 was the year Smokey
Yunick tried sneaking the highly illegal Chevelle through inspection, and he
got so disgusted with the list of things the inspectors said needed to be
corrected, Yunick hopped in the car and drove it off down the beach….with the
gas tank still sitting in the inspection garage. I guess they didn't find all
of Smokey's tricks. There was also a confrontation in the garage area the day
the qualifying races were set to run. The rains stopped and Bill France told the
drivers to hurry to their cars to get the race started. The drivers refused,
saying the track was too wet. France went and got his personal car, pulled on a
helmet and said there was going to be a race even if he was the only car out
there, and the prize money would be paid. Dave Marcis,
a rookie that year, was prepared to take up the challenge though the other
drivers refused. Heavy rain started falling again and washed out what could
have been a pretty bizarre race.
Mario Andretti looked stout again in that year's 500,
but got caught up in a wreck with John Sears that also wiped out Buddy Baker.
Baker and Andretti had some pretty heated words after the wreck. Meanwhile, out
on the track there was a heated battle going on between the best of the Ford teams,
LeeRoy Yarbrough in the Junior Johnson Mercury, Cale Yarborough (no relation)
in the Wood Brothers Merc, David Pearson, newly transplanted from a Dodge to
the Holman and Moody seat in a Ford, and Bobby Allison driving for Bondy Long, who had owned Ned Jarrett's '65 championship
car. In the end, it came down to Cale and LeeRoy with Cale in the faster car,
but having trouble getting through traffic to get to LeeRoy. He managed the
feat in dramatic fashion, making the final pass with three laps to go and
holding on for the win. Cyclones or Torinos took four
of the five spots, with only Indy car standout Al Unser Senior in a Dodge
spoiling the party by finishing fourth, behind Allison, but ahead of Pearson.
Richard Petty, vinyl roof and all, ended up eighth, two laps off the pace. The
new Ford's debut was a success.
The big pre-race story at the 1969 Daytona 500 was an
unthinkable alliance making its Southeastern debut... Richard Petty driving a
Ford. Mopar had attempted to design an aerodynamic car of their own, but it was
no match for the Fords. Ford had re-upped the ante with the new Ford Talladega
and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II, even more aerodynamic versions of the previous
year's cars. Petty had decided it was better to switch then fight. Ford was also
supposed to debut their own Hemi engine, the Boss 429, and in fact, most teams
had them under the hood when they arrived, but NASCAR was not satisfied the
required number of street Bosses had been built, and the teams had to fall back
on their tried and true 427's.
Defending Grand National champion David Pearson put on
a stunning demonstration of the new Ford's aerodynamic capabilities, by turning
the first official lap at over 190 miles per hour that year in his Talladega.
If his competition needed a little demonstration of what that meant in race
conditions, Pearson was kind enough to show them by charging from 15th to 1st
in 18 laps and winning the first 125-mile qualifying race. Pearson was trailed
by Cale Yarborough in a Mercury, Donnie Allison in a Ford, and AJ Foyt in
another Ford. Finishing off the top five sweep for Fords was a rookie by the
name of Benny Parsons in his first Grand National start. Of course Buddy Baker,
one of the fastest Dodges, drove only two laps, before following Curtis Turner's
logic, parking the car rather than risking the car he had put on the pole for
the big show. In a stunning reversal, Bobby Isaac won the second qualifier in a
Dodge, leading a 1-3 sweep for the Mopars. Among
those getting a chance to see the rear bumpers of the Dodge boys was Richard
Petty in his new Ford, who finished 6th, and admitted his team was still trying
to figure out the Fords.
The Sportsman class, from which the Busch series
evolved, ran their first Daytona race the Saturday before the 500. Don MacTavish
was killed in a terrible eighth lap wreck. LeeRoy Yarbrough won the event. (Editor's
note: Don MacTavish was 1966 NASCAR National Sportsman Series Champion. The
wreck that took him somewhat resembled Mark Martin's tangling with the butt-end
of a concrete wall, in this instance, where it met a guard rail. What was left
of MacTavish's car however, spun back into traffic and was struck in the
driver's door by oncoming traffic. MacTavish was pronounced dead at the scene)
For the first time, the crowd for the Daytona 500
exceeded 100,000 souls, 101,800 according to the official press release. They
came to see the Ford/Mopar battle, but in the end it was tire strategy, not the
make of car that decided the outcome. Once again, the attrition rate was a major
factor, with wrecks playing a major role. Cale Yarborough broke his nose and
didn't do the car's nose any good either, slugging the wall on lap 103 after
blowing a tire. Tires would remain a major problem during the 1969 season.
Richard Petty made what he later admitted was a mistake in judgment and
rear-ended Bobby Isaac while Isaac was trying to get around slower traffic.
Isaac got the worse end of the deal and was eliminated in his Dodge that had
won the second qualifier, while Petty soldiered on though out of contention.
Paul Goldsmith, another of the strong Mopar runners, was also eliminated in a
wreck.
Unlike today, in those days there were two distinct
tire compounds, a softer one with better grip but high wear characteristics,
and a harder more durable, but less grippy compound.
Charlie Glotzbach in a Dodge had taken the lead from
LeeRoy Yarbrough in a Ford and was pulling away. On the final pit stop, Glotzbach's team went with the conservative approach,
running the hard tires, while Junior Johnson had his team roll the dice with
the softer compound tires on LeeRoy's car. The
difference in grip was enough to allow Yarbrough to pass Glotzbach,
and LeeRoy took the win in the same race that had slipped from his grasp the
previous year. Glotzbach held on for second, ahead of
Donnie Allison, AJ Foyt and Buddy Baker in that order. Six Fords and four
Dodges made up the top ten. Junior Johnson had won the Daytona 500 both as a
driver and a team owner.
The Mopar camp had a secret weapon of their own for
the 1970 Daytona 500. Frustrated by the Ford dominance on big tracks, they had
developed the Dodge Daytona, named after the track it was meant to dominate
when introduced midway through the 1969 season, and its sister ship, the
Plymouth Superbird. Both were odd looking contraptions with pointy beaks and
high tail fins only a mother…and the wind…could love. The Superbird had been
enough to lure Richard Petty back into the Plymouth camp.
Despite the Ford's Clark Kent appearance compared to
the Superbird, the cars were almost equal performance wise. In the first
qualifying race, Cale Yarborough in the Wood Brothers Mercury and Bobby Isaac
in the K and K Insurance Dodge Daytona seemed the cars to beat after David
Pearson in a Ford retired with mechanical problems, and Pete Hamilton in a
Superbird faded. The difference once again came down to pit strategy. Isaac
took on two tires during his stop, while Cale's team
elected to go only with fuel. Yarborough had a five second lead after the stop
and managed to stretch it to a 5.5 second win over Isaac when the checkers
flew. He averaged a blistering 183 plus miles per hour in the caution free
event. There was a caution for a wreck in the second qualifying event and it
was a bad one. Rookie Talmadge Prince blew an engine and got sideways in his
own oil. Bill Seifert slipped in that same oil and was unable to avoid hitting
Prince's car broadside. Prince was killed instantly. Seifert was rushed to the
hospital with chest injuries and bruising to his heart. Charlie Glotzbach and Buddy Baker, both in Dodges, took command of
the event after the 13-lap caution period and Glotzbach
used the slingshot move around Baker to take the victory. Charlie's win was a
bit of a miracle in itself. He was starting his first race since being shot in
an argument with an employee at the business he owned. Initially, no one
thought Glotzbach would live. Since they were named
after the track, perhaps it seems fitting Dodge Daytonas
finished 1-4, with a Superbird and another Daytona rounding out the top six.
With the fierce competition between Ford and Mopar for
dominance, both factories turned up the wick in the engine department, running
their mills at the ragged edge to try to get every last possible bit of
horsepower. As a result there were a lot of mechanical failures in the 1970
Daytona 500. Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Donnie Allison, and Tiny Lund all
popped engines. So did the newcomer with the odd name, Dick Trickle, making his
first Grand National start. A major surprise was the strong performance of
Petty's teammate Pete Hamilton, in another Superbird, also Petty blue, but
carrying number 40, with a red panel on the nose to help tell the cars apart
and sponsorship from Seven Up, the first soft drink manufacturer to play a
major role in stock car racing. (They had signed on with Petty for select
events in 1969) It came down to rookie Hamilton and the cagey two-time champion
David Pearson in a Ford. Richard Petty was calling the shots from the sidelines
and ordered the team to go with four tires on the last stop. Pearson's
Holman-Moody team gambled on two tires. Once again the race was decided on pit
strategy, but that year the more conservative approach won the day. As Pearson
tried to slingshot past Hamilton, the tires of his Ford were so worn he got
sideways. Hamilton also got out of shape but recovered quickly enough to take
the Petty Enterprises car to victory lane at Daytona, the third driver to do
so. Pearson finished second, the only Ford in the top five. Bobby Allison,
Charlie Glotzbach, and Bobby Isaac, all in Daytonas, finished behind Pearson in that order.
*Matt can no longer
field comments or email at Race Fans Forever. If you have comments or
questions, please leave them below and I’ll do my best to supply answers.
~PattyKay Lilley, Senior Editor.
