The 1965 racing season dawned with NASCAR having ruled the super powerful "Hemi" engines of the Chrysler Corporation as illegal. Chrysler brass asked for a boycott and such teams as Petty Engineering and Cotton Owens withdrew their entries. This left the fields wide open for Ford and Mercury to dominate the season as the General Motors teams were involved only slightly while publicly denying any support of racing whatsoever. So, it was no surprise that the Blue Oval folks were going to dominate the events in Daytona in February, 1965.
The 100 mile qualifying races drew only 12,000 fans which was a precursor for NASCAR as long as the Mopars were sidelined. The first event saw Darel Dieringer nip Ned Jarrett on the final turn when Darel forced Ned high and room ran out for Gentleman Ned. Afterwards Ned said he could have forced Darel down the track but he "doesn't race like that".
An interesting sidelight to this first 100 miler was the big Dodge Polara, with the outlawed Hemi (except in the bigger Polaras and Plymouth Furys)entered by Ray Fox with LeeRoy Yarbrough driving. In the qualifying race, LeeRoy struggled to a 12th place finish out of 21 cars. On Saturday before the 500, LeeRoy started the car for practice and loud popping noises were heard throughout the pits from under the hood of the big Dodge. Some thought it sabotage and others thought the engine problems were the result of actions by Chrysler Corporation to keep the Dodge out of the 500. Whatever the reason, LeeRoy did not start that car in the 500.
Ned Jarrett led the first 31 laps of the 40 lap event before Bobby Johns took over in another Ford. On lap 35, it was Dieringer putting his year old Bud Moore Mercury in front of Johns and Dieringer and Jarrett fought it out for the last lap win by Dieringer. Immediately the Ford brass were not happy because instead of the new Fords winning as planned, a year old Mercury took the win. Same company, just different offices in Dearborn. Of course, NASCAR billed the win by Darel as an "upset" to generate interest of the fans.
Top five finishers:
1. Darel Dieringer, Bud Moore Mercury
2. Ned Jarrett, Bondy Long Ford
3. Bobby Johns, Holman-Moody Ford
4. Larry Frank, Frank Ford (1964 model)
5. H. B. Baily, Baily Pontiac
The second 100 miler got off to a slam-bang start as 13 cars were involved in a terrifying crash. In turn four of the first lap, Rod Eulenfield, a rookie, lost control of the Ford he was driving dipped onto the apron of the track and then immediately shot back up on the track in front of the full speed pack. Eulenfield's car was hit by several others and began a series of horrifying flips before bursting into flames. Buck Baker was the only driver seriously injured enough to require transport to the hospital as he had some broken ribs. Baker was quick to point out there were a number of drivers with no super speedway experience, or very little, in Daytona to take advantage of the missing Mopar drivers and try to make the field. Tiger Tom Pistone was involved as was Cale Yarborough and Earl Brooks. But some of the others, such as Bill DeCoster, Pete Stewart and Jack Goodwin were not exactly well known NASCAR drivers.
The lead was swapped nine times between Fred Lorenzen and Junior Johnson but Earl Balmer slipped his Bud Moore Mercury into the lead for two laps midway in the race. Earl had been signed to drive the Mercury after Billy Wade had been killed in a Bud Moore Mercury while testing tires at Daytona on January 5th. Ford brass were happy with the outcome of the second 100 miler as the top five finishers were:
1. Junior Johnson, Johnson Ford
2. Fred Lorenzen, Holman-Moody Ford
3. Marvin Panch, Wood Brothers Ford
4. Donald Tucker, Don Snyder Ford (a 1963 model)
5. Sam McQuagg, Betty Lilly Ford
The 1965 Daytona 500 drew just over 58,000 fans and got underway under gray skies which promised to open up and dump rain on the Florida track before the race could run 500 miles. As it turned out, that happened and it may have been a very good thing for NASCAR. At theend of six laps, 14 cars were already behind the wall with mechanical failures of some type or another. It was noted that none of the drivers out by lap six were known for "starting and parking" although there were some questionable first time Daytona entries. From 32nd back, positions were paid $1,000.00 so there may be support for the start and park argument.
On lap 27, Junior Johnson, who stormed into the lead on the green flag and was pulling away from all competitors, blew a tire and crashed hard into the outside wall, scattering debris over a large area of the track. It required 14 laps of caution to clean up the mess of the demolished Ford and Johnson was transported to the infield care center to stitch a bad cut over his eye.
Marvin Panch, Fred Lorenzen and Bobby Johns shared times leading the race under the sullen skies before the rain began to fall and fall hard. Panch tried a pass on Lorenzen on the high side but Lorenzen didn't see him, claiming so much rain on the windshield it was impossible to see Panch's move, and Panch head to the pits for repairs. Panch did not blame Lorenzen for the accident which relegated Panch to a sixth place finish after the pit stop.
Finally, on lap 133, with the field literally sloshing through the puddles in heavy rain, NASCAR threw the red flag and the field was halted to wait out the rain. The rain never stopped and some 3 hours later, as night was falling, NASCAR declared the race official and Lorenzen as the winner. The average speed for the event was 141.539 and this was Freddie's 20th career win.
Fans left the track wet, disappointed at being cheated out of a great finish, and most of all discussing the attrition rate. More than one was heard to say that if the race had gone the entire 500 miles, there wouldn't have been ten cars left running. Ford Motor Company had, however, accomplished their goal of putting Fords or Mercurys in the top positions. In fact, the first non Ford Motor Company product to finish was 14th place J.T. Putney in a Herman Beam Chevrolet which was 8 laps behind the winning Ford of Lorenzen.
Finishing order:
1. Fred Lorenzen, Holman-Moody Ford, winning $27,100.00
2. Darel Dieringer, Bud Moore Mercury, winning $12,900.00 (1 lap down)
3. Bobby Johns, Holman-Moody Ford, winning $7,850.00 (1 lap down)
4. Earl Balmer, Bud Moore Mercury, winning $4,350.00 (1 lap down)
5. Ned Jarrett, Bondy Long Ford, winning $3,750.00 (1 lap down)
6. Marvin Panch
7. Dick Hutcherson
8. Sam McQuagg
9. Cale Yarborough
10. G.C. Spencer
11. Bobby Allison
12. H. B. Bailey
13. Doug Cooper
14. J. T. Putney
15.Donald Tucker
16. Jerry Grant
17. Neil Castles
18. Bob Derrington
19. Larry Hess
20. Wendell Scott
21. Elmo Langley
22. Don Tilley
23. Johnny Allen
24. Herb Shannon
25. Bub Stickler
26. Reb Wickersham
27. Bunkie Blackburn
28. Junior Johnson
29. Tiny Lund
30. Roy Mayne
31. Jack Anderson
32. Jim Bray
33. Jeff Hawkins
34. Ned Setzer
35. Barry Brooks
36. Red Farmer
37. Pete Stewart
38. Jimmy Helms
39. Tom Pistone
40.Buddy Baker
41. Larry Frank
42. Joe Penland
43. Robert Vaughn
PERSONAL MEMORIES: Being the huge Petty fan I was (and still am) I was totally ticked at Ford Motor Company and NASCAR for "outlawing" the Chrysler Hemi for the 1965 season. Richard boycotted so I did as well. In fact, until Richard came back near the end of the season when NASCAR's purse strings were screaming "we need fans", the only two races I attended were the events at Columbia Speedway. As I often joke, it was against the Cayce City Ordinance to start a race at Columbia Speedway without me in the infield.
I do recall that I listened to this race, in my bedroom alone. Uncle Bobby had no desire to listen to a "bunch of Fords" run the race. I also recall that listening to the race was a second diversion as I was actually reading a book at the time as I always enjoyed reading. Don't remember the book but I do remember it kept my attention away from the race that about the only incident I actually remember was all the talk about how bad the Junior Johnson crash had been.
I also recall the rain coming in and the red flag coming out. I remember saying to myself "serves them right" in reference to NASCAR not allowing the Hemi to run. I listened to a little bit of the post red flag chatter, which I must admit was much more entertaining and informative that such diatribe as you hear now on television in such situation. The race control returned "to your local stations" and I turned off the radio and went outside to see what I could get into. I did not know, until Monday morning when I read the newspaper, who had won the race.
Just the year before I had been in Daytona, full of excitement and absolutely overjoyed at Petty's win and the 1965 season got underway with a Ford sweep of a rain shortened Daytona 500. It was not going to be a good year for me OR the Pettys.
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.
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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
