Racing History Minute - 1966 Daytona 500
Stock Car Racing History
Richard Petty's breakout season was 1964. Though the season officially started in November 1963, even then folks considered the true start of the season when Speedweeks rolled around. He easily won the Daytona 500 and his first championship. Conventional wisdom suggested the Petty team would easily march through 1965. But with the Chrysler boycott, the 43 was sidelined from GN racing for the first half of the season and most of the big races in second half. So the question had to be asked: how would he and the Level Cross boys perform as they returned to a full scheduled in 1966?
As was common then, the 1966 season started in [ November 1965 in Augusta, GA ]. The second race was the [ Motor Trend 500 ] at Riverside in January. And then all eyes turned towards central Florida.
Speedweeks was beginning to take a different shape. The Race Of Champions in the early 1960s - a pre-Winston / All Star Race if you will - gave way to the American Challenge Series. That race in turn became the 3-hour Continental race for sports cars. And in 1966, the 3-hour event became the inaugural 24 Hours of Daytona.
All questions about how Petty would fare in the stock car parts of Speedweeks soon had two answers: (1) YES! if you were a Petty fan and (2) Uh-oh if you weren't.
Petty won the pole, finished 2nd in his twin, led more than half the 500 and scored his 42nd career victory and his second Daytona 500 - the only multi-time winner in the race's eight years. For the second year in a row, the race ended under caution because of rain - two laps early in 1966.
Race program from Motor Racing Programme Covers
Another story line of the 1966 Speedweeks was Curtis Turner. Banned by Bill France from 1961 until 1965, Pops was making his first start at DIS since 1961 in a Ford fielded by the Wood Brothers and as a teammate to Marvin Panch. Because it had been so long since Pops had been on DIS' high banks, NASCAR had them sport a rookie stripe. From DBMJ .
When practice cranked up, the King - and maybe more so Chief - let the competition know who planned to rule Speedweeks. Each time the 43 Plymouth hit the asphalt, a track record was seemingly set - and jaws dropped a bit farther. From DBMJ .
As practice sessions continued, both Dick Hutcherson and Petty eclipsed the 177 MPH marker. When qualifying day arrived, however, stiff winds forced the speeds back down. Still, the 43 predictably won the pole with a track record 175 MPH 2-lap average. Hutcherson in a Ford nailed down the spot alongside Petty.
Another change to Speedweeks from earlier in the 60s was in qualifying. The GN cars once ran 10-lap, 25-mile qualifying heats to determine the front row as well as the starting line-ups for the twin 100-mile qualifiers. In 1966, NASCAR implemented the 2-lap, flat-out process that most of us have seen used for decades. The top 2 cars locked in the front row, and the remainder filled out the twins.
As the teams continued to tweak their cars and prep for the twins, the Pettys do what they've always seemed to do - take care of others. Before the twins, Lee and Richard and Dale Inman visited the American Red Cross. Inman is shown giving blood. Apparently King or Lee did too - though they certainly left enough at the track itself!
In the first qualifying race, Petty started from the pole and led the majority of the race - pacing the field for 25 of the first 39 laps. But fellow Plymouth driver, Paul Goldsmith, caught the 43 on the last lap and narrowly edged Petty for the win.
In the second qualifying race, Earl Balmer pulled the mild upset win. He claimed his first GN victory driving Ray Fox's #3 Dodge.
Starting lineup for the 2nd twin. Lee Roy Yarbrough on the inside of row 1 in the #12 Dodge, Bunkie Blackburn started 3rd in #22, Jim Hurtubise outside of row 2, Ned Jarrett's #11 on the inside of row 3, and eventual race winner Balmer to Ned's outside. - Ray Lamm
RacersReunion members have shared several photos from the 1966 Speedweeks. Here are a few.
Big John Sears - Danny Quick
USAC regular Gordon Johncock in Nord Krauskopf's 71 Dodge - J.C. Hayes
When the green dropped, pole-winner Petty and Hutch led the field on the start. -
Richard Guido 
Petty led the first 6 laps before giving way to Goldsmith. Unlike in 1964 when Richard dominated almost the whole race, the first half of the 1966 edition saw several lead changes amongst various leaders. But when the lap counter clicked 112, it was all 43 the rest of the way. Petty led the next 86 laps before the rains fell and ending the race 2 laps short of a full event.
Photo and headline courtesy of Jerry Bushmire
NASCAR was fortunate in that era to have some coverage of the race featured on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Races weren't broadcast live and were aired on a heavily-edited basis a week or two - or more - later. Considering most NASCAR races were not aired, the Daytona 500 was one of the two most prominent races on the schedule partially because of the TV coverage.
A couple of things I find interesting in this brief recap of the race's highlights are:
- In the video's intro remarks, ABC's Curt Gowdy refers to the race as the World Series of Stock Car Racing. Baseball was still America's national pastime in the 1960s. In the late 1970s - and pretty much even today, the race is referred to as the Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing. In 1966, the Super Bowl was still a year away from its first edition.
- For some reason, Petty's crew painted the 43 on the roof off-center. See it around the 5:15 mark.
I found it interesting too that Chris Economaki looked like Vaughan, John Ritter's character in Slingblade .
If you are a real junkie for old school NASCAR video, here are links to a 4-part, extended version recap of the race.
1966 Daytona 500 - part 1 1966 Daytona 500 - part 2 1966 Daytona 500 - part 3 1966 Daytona 500 - part 4
Race report provided by RR member Jerry Bushmire.
Somehow, someway, a newspaper editor 'discovered' a lost Petty child - Tom. Shunned by his racing parents and siblings, he went on to a life of rock-and-roll. As an adult, he sang such racing-related songs as Breakdown , You Wreck Me , I Won't Back Down , and Runnin' Down A Dream . Photo - including Kyle Petty not Tom - courtesy of Jerry Bushmire
The King's hardware haul. - Getty
The race was the cover story for what I think may have been issue #2 of the new magazine, Stock Car Racing.
What many didn't know at the time is that in the days before Daytona, Richard was horsing around with some of the Petty team members in a friendly game of football. The horsing around got a bit more serious when Richard injured his hand. He shook it off and somehow managed to work around the pain all through Speedweeks - including the victory. But after a few more weeks of dealing with it, he could stand it no more. He missed Rockingham and Bristol in the early season to recover from surgery to repair torn ligaments. - TMC
| Fin | Driver | Car |
| 1 | Richard Petty | '66 Plymouth |
| 2 | Cale Yarborough | '66 Ford |
| 3 | David Pearson | '66 Dodge |
| 4 | Fred Lorenzen | '66 Ford |
| 5 | Sam McQuagg | '66 Dodge |
| 6 | Jim Hurtubise | '66 Plymouth |
| 7 | Ned Jarrett | '66 Ford |
| 8 | LeeRoy Yarbrough | '66 Dodge |
| 9 | James Hylton | '65 Dodge |
| 10 | Larry Frank | '66 Plymouth |
| 11 | Jim Paschal | '66 Plymouth |
| 12 | Darel Dieringer | '66 Mercury |
| 13 | Wendell Scott | '65 Ford |
| 14 | J.T. Putney | '65 Chevrolet |
| 15 | Jabe Thomas | '64 Ford |
| 16 | Frank Warren | '64 Chevrolet |
| 17 | Henley Gray | '66 Ford |
| 18 | Paul Goldsmith | '66 Plymouth |
| 19 | Wayne Smith | '66 Chevrolet |
| 20 | Bobby Allison | '65 Ford |
| 21 | Bobby Isaac | '66 Ford |
| 22 | Buck Baker | '66 Oldsmobile |
| 23 | Johnny Allen | '64 Ford |
| 24 | G.C. Spencer | '65 Plymouth |
| 25 | Curtis Turner | '66 Ford |
| 26 | Marvin Panch | '66 Ford |
| 27 | Don White | '65 Dodge |
| 28 | Johnny Rutherford | '66 Chevrolet |
| 29 | Gordon Johncock | '65 Dodge |
| 30 | Ned Setzer | '66 Chevrolet |
| 31 | Blackie Watt | '64 Ford |
| 32 | Buddy Baker | '65 Chevrolet |
| 33 | A.J. Foyt | '66 Ford |
| 34 | John Sears | '64 Ford |
| 35 | Dick Hutcherson | '66 Ford |
| 36 | Bunkie Blackburn | '65 Chevrolet |
| 37 | Mario Andretti | '66 Chevrolet |
| 38 | Bill Champion | '64 Ford |
| 39 | Lionel Johnson | '64 Ford |
| 40 | Stick Elliott | '66 Chevrolet |
| 41 | Earl Balmer | '65 Dodge |
| 42 | Larry Hess | '64 Ford |
| 43 | Roy Mayne | '66 Chevrolet |
| 44 | Ronnie Chumley | '64 Pontiac |
| 45 | Elmo Langley | '65 Chevrolet |
| 46 | Calvin Kelly | '64 Ford |
| 47 | Sonny Hutchins | '64 Ford |
| 48 | Bob Derrington | '64 Ford |
| 49 | H.B. Bailey | '66 Pontiac |
| 50 | Rene Charland | '64 Ford |
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
