In 1973, NASCAR Grand National Rookie of the Year candidate, Lennie Pond was drving his own tow truck from Petersburg, Virginia south on Interstate 95 when he was trapped in a freak southern snow storm that ultimately cost him a shot at making his first Daytona 500 start.
I can vouch for the ferocity of that storm. I was moving from Richmond, Virginia back to Wilson, NC the same day and the 150 mile trip took ten hours. We got trapped at Rocky Mount, North Carolina on I-95 when the traffic completely stopped and you could no longer see the Interstate and thought we'd run out of gas.
Even though he didn't start the Daytona 500, at the conclusion of 1973 Pond was voted NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year over Darrell Waltrip.
In a Google News Archive story two years later, Pond tells how he wasn't taking any more weather chances on getting to Daytona. Link below:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wqYfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=edYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=870,1207275&dq=lennie+pond+daytona+500+snow&hl=en
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 01/04/22 09:45:23AM