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Racing History Minute - 1964 Daytona 500

Stock Car Racing History

Tiny Lund won the modified sportsman race - edging out Junior Johnson. Even in 1964, the preliminary event had its share of "Buschwhackers". From News And Courier .

LeeRoy Yarbrough was involved in vicious wreck, was knocked unconscious, and had to be pulled from the car. - Ray Lamm

Ken Rush - who raced several times for Julian Petty and Cliff Stewart - raced in the modified sportsman event. Unfortunately for him, he finished 48th in the 50-car field.

updated by @tmc-chase: 02/23/18 09:52:04AM

Racing History Minute - 1964 Daytona 500

Stock Car Racing History

Little Bud Moore made his 2nd career modified sportsman start in the preliminary event during Daytona's Speedweeks. His first GN start wouldn't happen for another 6 months when he debuted at Nashville. He finished 43rd in the 50-car field.

Johnny Rutherford won one of the qualifying races in Smoky Yunich's Chevrolet in 1963. JR returned in 1964 and caught a ride with the other Bud Moore. The car began the race looking very sporty.

But during the race, things got turned upside down a bit when Rutherford tangled with Ned Jarrett.

updated by @tmc-chase: 02/23/18 09:51:49AM

Racing History Minute - 1964 Daytona 500

Stock Car Racing History

The hemi-powered Plymouths were hot right off the trailers. From DBMJ .

But if FoMoCo drivers Tiny Lund and Parnelli Jones had any stress about racing the Mopars, they sure didn't show it. Rather than pace the garage, Tiny did what Tiny did best - have fun and relax, especially at a prime fishing spot.

updated by @tmc-chase: 02/23/18 09:51:33AM

Racing History Minute - 1964 Daytona 500

Stock Car Racing History

During a 50-lap ARCA preliminary race before its 250-miler, Bay Darnell had quite the wet adventure. He slid coming off of turn 2 and kerplunked it right into Lake Lloyd. - Jerry Bushmire

Here is the photo referenced by Tim of Lee and Elizabeth Petty just relaxing on the rear door of their station wagon. However, it does look like took for him to have the film processed judging by the Nov 1964 marking on the photo border. Tim - did you have to save a bunch of Coke bottles to return for deposit to pay for the prints? - Team SC Midlands

Mutt Powell raced in the modified sportsman race won by Tiny Lund. Powell raced for Marion Cox and finished 42nd in the 50-car field. - Tony Powell

Doug Cooper finished a respectable 18th in the 500 - sandwiched between 2 racing legends of Cale Yarborough and Ralph Earnhardt. - Danny Quick

updated by @tmc-chase: 02/23/18 09:50:54AM

Racing History Minute - 1964 Daytona 500

Stock Car Racing History

Tim Leeming offered me the captain's chair today to post about the 1964 edition of the Daytona 500. I'm not sure why as nothing really relevant happened that week that I might be interested in writing about. Ha.

I originally blogged about this race two years ago. I'm going to copy most of the content here but then add more to it. My original blog entry is here:

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/02/february-23-this-day-in-petty-history.html

1964 was an eventful year in multiple ways ...

• The Beatles released their first U.S. album and later appeared on The Ed Sullivan show.
• The Rolling Stones released their debut album.
• Super Tex - A.J. Foyt - won his second Indianapolis 500 though Indy hero Eddie Sachs was killed
• NASCAR and its fan base were rocked with the deaths of two-time reigning NASCAR champion, Joe Weatherly, at Riverside in January and Fireball Roberts following his horrific crash in the World 600.
• And the 1964-1965 World's Fair opened in New York featuring ... [  The Schaefer Center  ].

A couple of other notable racing historical moments took place in 1964:

• Chrysler Corporation unleashed the famed hemispherical combustion engine - The Hemi - on NASCAR's competition. The rest of the field participated, but without a hemi it was akin to their bringing a knife to a gunfight.
• Richard Petty won his first Daytona 500 and eventually his first of seven NASCAR Grand National / Winston Cup championships.

In a format closer to what we're about to see in 2014 with Cup qualifying than the traditional "fast lap" time trials, the teams participated in a 50 lap heat race if you will to determine the front row for the 500. Fellow Plymouth driver Paul Goldsmith and Petty made short work of the two races placing them on the front row for the 500 and the pole position for each of the qualifying twins. NSSN cover from Russ Thompson.

The winners from the qualifying heat races with their trophies. From [  DBMJ  ].

In the first twin, Goldsmith started from the pole but did not contend for the win. On the 27th lap of the 40-lap event, Goldsmith's hemi let go - surely causing the Chrysler brass to pucker. With a couple of laps to go, veteran Buck Baker was on point in the Petty team's second #41 Plymouth. Junior Johnson and David Pearson in Dodges followed close behind him. The next closest driver, Marvin Panch in a Ford, was waaaay behind the trio - demonstrating early and often how the hemi engine was there to dominate.

On the last lap, Johnson pulled a sling shot move in turn 3 to ease past Baker for the lead. Baker tried to return the move as they headed for the tri-oval, but Johnson blocked the move to hold on for the win. Baker settled for 2nd with Pearson third.

In the second twin, it was all Petty, all the time. Well, almost. When the green lap dropped, the 43 was gone. He paced the field for the first 39 of 40 laps. The win was secured as he had comfortable lead on Bobby Issac and Jimmy Pardue ... but then it happened. With the checkers in sight, the Plymouth ran out of fuel. Petty coasted along the apron helplessly as Isaac and Pardue closed quickly. The three of them flashed across the line in a finish too-close-to-call. The start-finish line camera malfunctioned, and officials needed four hours before deciding Isaac won, Pardue 2nd, and Petty 3rd. (Coincidentally, the camera was installed after the finish of the inaugural Daytona 500 when Lee Petty barely edged out Johnny Beauchamp.)

From [  Spartanburg Herald  ]

From Ray Lamm

Despite Petty's near-miss in his qualifying race, his second place starting spot for the 500 was still secure. Paul Goldsmith's 25 team replaced the hemi and retained his top starting position. From Ray Lamm .

Green, green, green! - Laverne Zachary

Petty led 184 of 200 laps en route to his 29th career win and the first superspeedway victory of his 5-year career. Teammate Baker started fifth and finished twelfth.

Before the race, Petty told Chris Economacki he'd likely make 5 pit stops - maybe 4 depending on fuel mileage, how cautions fell, etc. As it turned out, the 43 team made 6 pit stops - and nailed them all. Perhaps it was Maurice Petty's magical Petty blue boots that helped as much as the crew's preparation and readiness.

Richard's hemi-engine Plymouth powered the blue #43 to a 1-lap victory. Second place Pardue and third place Goldsmith gave Plymouth and the hemi a 1-2-3 finish.

To the victor belongs the spoils ... including a nice, little kiss.

The winner posing with his trophy...

... and the trophy hanging out afterwards on the hood of a car before it headed back to Level Cross. From Tim Leeming .

updated by @tmc-chase: 02/23/18 09:50:18AM

"Daytona Rising" = Rising Sun

Current NASCAR

Certainly not the first time Daytona and Japan have been linked together.

As I shared in today's racing history minute, victory lane at the 1964 Daytona 500 was linked to Japan.

And in February 1961, Fireball Roberts and Smoky Yunick posed for a photo-op with a couple of Japanese motorcyle racers that ran on the front page of the Daytona paper .

Racing History Minute - 1963 Daytona 500

Stock Car Racing History

Race's anniversary date: February 24th.

*Bump* for folks who didn't read this post a year ago.

Racing History Minute - 1963 Daytona 500

Stock Car Racing History

Rats, I messed that up. Herk DID run the 42 and Paschal raced the 41 in their respective twins. Both made the 500. But the Pettys swapped the drivers in the two cars. Paschal raced the 42, and Hurtubise piloted the 41.

Racing History Minute - 1963 Daytona 500

Stock Car Racing History

In 1961, DIS hosted a 10-lap, 25-mile Race Of Champions for prior year GN winners - a much older version of what became known as The Winston more than 2 decades later. A similar race was held in 1962, but the name was changed to American Racing Challenge Sprint Race.

The American Racing Challenge name was retained for 1963, but the race format was radically changed. It became a 100-lap, 250-mile race for Grand Touring cars. The race had a thin field with only 14 cars - but it had some star power in it with drivers such as Paul Goldsmith, A.J. Foyt and Rex White.

NASCAR regular White won the pole, 1961 Indy 500 champ Foyt finished 2nd in the race, and NASCAR/USAC double-dipper Goldsmith won the race.

Its not often you can say a Pontiac whupped up on a Ferrari.

From DBMJ

Racing History Minute - 1963 Daytona 500

Stock Car Racing History

In 1963, midget races were no longer considered an official part of Daytona's Speedweeks as they had been in previous years. But they still ran them at nearby Memorial Stadium. From DBMJ .

The drag racing returned too - this time under the short-lived NASCAR straight-line sanctioned division.