NASCAR Gets Chance at Indy Race Says 1963 Daytona News Headline

On January 19, 1963, a headline on the sports pages of the Daytona Beach Morning Journal proclaimed "NASCAR GETS CHANCE AT INDY RACE."

The story (seen below) went on to tell of a huge stock car race planned for April 28, 1963 carrying full FIA International sanction, allowing competitors from NASCAR, USAC and SCCA to butt heads on the Indianapolis Raceway Park road course, just as they would at that weekend's inaugural January 1963 Riverside 500.

IRP and the headline writers evidently didn't bother to check Big Bill France's 1963 NASCAR Grand National schedule, which already had the Gwynn Staley 400 scheduled at his friend, Enoch Staley's North Wilkesboro Speedway on the same date of April 28, 1963.

April 28, 1963 turned into a Tim Leeming "Legend" kind of day, as Richard Petty took Wilkesboro in a Petty PLYMOUTH and AJ Foyt took IRP in a Norm Nelson PLYMOUTH . When the cash was counted, Lee Petty might have wished he'd entered son, Richard in the IRP race, as winner Foyt took home nearly twice what Richard won in chicken country.

Holman-Moody had several factory Fords entered at IRP on April 28 for Fireball Roberts, who qualified 2nd and for Curtis Turner who placed 3rd on the lead lap with Foyt. You'll also see the name of RR member, Reb Wickersham in the IRP rundown, along with Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones and a terrific field of other racers.

Too bad those two fields couldn't have been combined for one stock car race.

Here are the results of each below from Ultimate Racing History - first the IRP Yankee 300 followed by the North Wilkesboro Gwynn Staley 400.

Yankee 300 - Indianapolis Raceway Park Road Course - USAC Stock Cars - April 28, 1963

Gwynn Staley 400 - North Wilkesboro Speedway 5/8th-Mile - NASCAR Stock Cars - April 28, 1963

An absolutely fantastic report! Thanks, Dave. I really don't recall this race but I guess I was more interested in what was going on here in the Southeast. Or could be my memory isslipping a little bit. I'm running around looking for my car keys this morning as it is.

Did you notice Roger Penske ran the IRP stock car race in a 1963 Ray Nichels Pontiac? He qualified 3rd, behind pole sitter, Parnelli Jones and outside pole winner, Fireball Roberts. Penske exited early with a grease seal problem, but certainly established that he was a pretty darned good "shoe" - even in the heavy stock cars.

On April 29, 1963, the Daytona Beach Morning Journal ran the USAC stock car race as its lead sports story on the first sports page, including the results. The North Wilkesboro NASCAR AP report was much smaller and below the fold. By the way, Roger Penske was leading the IRP race when he exited - and, it was his first ever stock car race! According to the two AP stories, the IRP stock car race drew a larger crowd than Wilkesboro.

Pretty impressive about Penske. I remember him contending for the lead and ultimately finishing 2nd behind F1 legend Jim Clark in a sports car race at Riverside in the early 60s. It must have taken tremendous willpower for him to stop racing completely when he did and hand over the driving duties to Donohue and others.

That was exactly my thought, Sandeep.