Daytona 500 - 1967
Stock Car Racing History
The first 100 mile qualifying race for the 1967 was filled with controversy thanks to the "arguably" greatest driver ever, A.J. Foyt, complaining about his treatment in the NASCAR world. But first, let's set up the finish.
LeeRoy Yarbrough, driving for journeyman owner Jon Thorne, in a Dodge, would pass the legendary A.J. with five laps to go and hold him off to win the race by 1 car length. Curtis Turner had actually started on the pole for the first 100 miler in a Yunick-Rich Chevrolet but parked it after one lap. The official reason for his being out of the race is listed as "quit". Curtis stated that the "Chevy is ready for the 500 so there is no sense in running it out there today".
When it came to the last lap, LeeRoy was leading going into turn three as A.J. set him up for the infamous "slingshot" to take the lead. However, Tiny Lund was in the low grove and A. J. couldn't make the move. LeeRoy would win by 1 car length over the highly disgruntled A.J. Foyt. Foyt climbed from his Ford accusing LeeRoy of passing him under an earlier caution flag. That didn't work so A. J. attacked Tiny Lund for being in the way but those complaints fell on the deaf ears of NASCAR. Lund was doing what he could to race and the fact that he was in the low lane where he was supposed to be as he was running one lap down in a Petty Plymouth indicated A.J. was tilting at windmills.
Foyt's next move was to corner a NASCAR official in the garage area. A.J.'s question to the official was "What are you going to do?". The answer, delivered in the southern drawl of a NASCAR natural was "Well, I guess we'll move everybody up one notch in the starting field". After a long "cooling off" period, A. J. decided to compete in the 500.
Top five finishers for the first 100 miler were:
1. LeeRoy Yarbrough, Jon Thorne Dodge
2. A. J. Foyt, Banjo Matthews Ford
3. Paul Goldsmith, Ray Nichels Plymouth
4. Buddy Baker, Ray Fox Dodge
5. Tiny Lund, Petty Enterprises Plymouth
The second 100 miler got underway with Richard Petty in his Plymouth starting on the pole with Cale Yarborough in the Wood Brothers Ford starting to his outside. Another NASCAR "outsider", Mario Andretti would start fourth in a Holman-Moody Ford but would be leading by lap four. Cale, Mario, and Richard Petty fought it out for 33 laps of the 40 before Dick Hutcherson slipped into the lead. "Hutch" led 3 laps before he had to stop for a gas and go which put Fred Lorenzen out front. Lorenzen elected to go without a pit stop but it appeared that he had messed up. Coming off turn two on the final lap, the number 28 Ford ran out of gas but he had a big enough lead to coast around to the checkered flag, winning the event before a crowd of 20,000.
Top five finishers were:
1. Fred Lorenzen, Holman-Moody Ford
2. Darel Dieringer, Junior Johnson Ford
3. Cale Yarborough, Wood Brothers Ford
4. Dick Hutcherson, Bondy Long Ford
5. Richard Petty, Petty Enterprises Plymouth
On Sunday, February 26, 1967, some 94,200 fans filled Daytona Speedway to witness, in part, the invasion of USAC open wheel drivers, A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti, against the favorites from NASCAR. The green flag waved and the crowd cheered lustily as Curtis Turner used his pole positionstarting slot to lead lap one. LeeRoy Yarbrough would take the lead away from Turner on lap 2 and would lead two laps before A. J. Foyt went to the point.
The lead was constantly changing as Turner, Yarbrough, Foyt, Buddy Baker, Andretti, Dieringer, Pearson, and Lorenzen tossed it about as if it were a hot potato.
Caution flags flew six times for a total of 54 laps. One caution was for the wild spin on lap 46 by Don White, driving for Ray Nichels. White spun in turn one and collected the cars of H. B. Bailey, Ramo Stott and John Sears. Only three laps after that, Dick Hutcherson drove his Ford headon into the wall in exactly the same spot. "Hutch" said that was the hardest hit he had ever taken.
It appeared David Pearson was more than enough competition for the persistent Andretti as Pearson had put his Cotton Owens Dodge out front on lap 153 and was actually opening a good lead over Andretti when his engine blew six laps later. With Pearson behind the wall, Andretti began to open the distance between himself and second place Lorenzen when, with two laps to go, Richard Petty's Plymouth blew the engine apart literally coating the track in oil. The caution waved and the 22 second lead Andretti enjoyed was gone but a quick survey of the track conditions assured him that the race would finish under caution.
Lorenzen was frustrated as he fell in behind Andretti behind the pace car as they slowly moved around the track. Andretti was about out of gas and was slowing the pace even more trying to save what little he had to finish the race. On the final lap, running under yellow, Tiny Lund, driving a Petty Plymouth ran out of gas and coasted into the pits where he was sitting when the checkered flag went out to the field, but even so, he is credited with fourth place.
Only Andretti and Lorenzen were on the lead lap. Andretti averaged 146.926 for the 500 miles which was slowed by more than one-fourth of the laps under caution. The 94,000 plus fans were convinced they had seen a good race but many were unwilling to accept someone named Andretti from some place in Pennsylvania, as a legitimate winner in NASCAR. But, we won it and he earned it.
Finishing order:
1. Mario Andretti, Holman-Moody Ford, winning $48,900.00
2. Fred Lorenzen, Holman-Moody Ford, winning $15,950 (finished under caution)
3. James Hylton, Bud Hartje Dodge, winning $10,925.00 (1 lap down)
4. Tiny Lund, Petty Enterprises Plymouth, winning $6,675.00 (2 laps down)
5. Jerry Grant, Friedkin Enterprises Plymouth, winning $4,725.00 (3 laps down)
6. Darel Dieringer
7. Sonny Hutchins
8. Richard Petty
9. Jim Hurtibise
10. Neil Castles
11. Donnie Allison
12. John Sears
13. Roy Mayne
14. Dorus Wisecraver
15. Wendell Scott
16. Paul Goldsmith
17. Henley Gray
18. H. B. Bailey
19. Bobby Isaac
20. Elmo Langley
21. Clyde Lynn
22. Sam McQuagg
23. Ramo Stott
24. David Pearson
25. Curtis Turner
26. Joel Davis
27. Innes Ireland
28. Buddy Baker
29. J. T. Putney
30. Gordon Johncock
31. Gary Bettenhausan
32. Jim Paschal
33. Charlie Glotzbach
34. LeeRoy Yarbrough
35. Ken Spikes
36. Dick Hutcherson
37. A. J. Foyt
38. Don White
39. Cale Yarborough
40. Bobby Allison
41. Bob Pickell
42.Red Farmer
43. Bobby Johns
44. G.C. Spencer
45. Blackie Watt
46. PAUL LEWIS
47. Frank Warren
48. Friday Hassler
49. George England
50. Coo Coo Marlin
PERSONAL MEMORIES: It seems almost appropriate as I write this today, that I can hear the sound of pelting sleet against the window of The Lair. In February, 1967, I was stationed in at the Little Creek Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia. I had booked a ticket on Piedmont Airlines to fly from Norfolk (yes I did fly back then, but no more) to Daytona. My Saturday afternoon flight was to depart Norfolk just after 1:00 p.m. and would arrive in Daytona about 7:30 p.m. and the "puddle jumping stops" in Newbern, NC, and Savannah, Georgia.
That Saturday morning dawned in Norfolk to blowing snow. I carefully guided my 1961 Plymouth to the airport only to find all flights from Norfolk were cancelled for the day. It was now apparent I would not make it to Daytona. I called the folks I was to meet at the Daytona Airport and told them to forget it.
I actually had a "pass" and didn't have to report back to the ship until Tuesday morning so I decided to go into downtown Norfolk and get a hotel room with my "Daytona money" and listen to the race from there. By the time I got to the first hotel down town, a blanket of snow and ice was covering everything in the city and I was about the only motor vehicle making way through the mess.
I checked into the hotel and picked up one of those little "what's happening in town" papers lying on the hotel desk. I went to the room, and believe me this was no Holiday Inn Express of Hampton Inn, but it was a clean room although the lighting was poor. Opening the curtains did little to enhance the lighting as the skies were dark and still dropping snow flakes. I flopped on the bed, then got up to turn on the small television. There were NO remotes in hotel rooms then. In fact, were there even remotes at all in 1967? I don't remember. Anyway, television reception was so poor only one channel would come in clearly enough to even watch. I don't recall what was on but I do recall I wasn't interested.
I opened the little folder I had picked up off the hotel desk and was reading all the different options of which I could avail myself in beautiful downtown Norfolk. I flipped over to about page 3 and there, in bold colors, was an advertisement including pictures of race cars in a Daytona race from the year before and very prominently displayed was that blue number 43 Plymouth. Finally drawn away from looking at the picture of the car I had hoped to witness winning a second straight Daytona 500, I finally read the advertisement. UNBELIEVEABLE. There, before my very eyes, was information regarding the closed-circuit televised Daytona 500 which would be shown in the theater on Sunday. I quickly checked the address and it was less than two blocks from hotel dingy.
I quickly put my boots back on and zipped up my jacket to head out to that theater to buy a ticket. No, I was NOT in uniform as during this period of American History, it was not recommended that we wear uniforms off base. In fact, we were highly advised against doing so by command as the anti-way sentiment was getting into high gear. As for hair cuts, as I was always the quintessential "rebel" my hair was never regulation military cut except in boot camp. So, I headed in direction of the theater.
When I got there, the marquee screamed "Daytona 500 - Closed Circuit - Sunday". I approached the ticket booth where a lady bearing a strong resemblance to the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz was reading a comic book. The only life on the entire street was the "witch" and me. I had to actually knock on the glass to get her attention. Then, what a shock! This woman smiled a radiant smile that warmed the cold of that winter day. She may have looked like the witch, but her personality was just awesome.
The "witch" and I talked about 20 minutes as I stood there freezing, although warmed by the racing related conversation. I got my ticket and promised her I would be there early Sunday morning because it was first come, first seated for the show.
As I walked back to the hotel, I passed a little jewelry store that was open. About the only business, other than the theater, open on that Saturday. For lack of anything better to do, I stopped in to look around. I came across a display of birthstone rings on "sale". The one for October was pretty and since I had all of my "Daytona" money, including airline fare, in my pocket, I bought the ring for October. There is a story on the site somewhere about how that ring was lost once at Myrtle Beach, spent the night buried in the sand, but found the next day when I went looking for it. I still have that ring today although it is too small for the ring finger and too large for the pinky finger so it stays in the drawer.
Sunday was a bright and sunny day in Norfolk, made further blinding by the sun reflecting off the snow. The theater was to open at 10:00 a.m. so I headed out at 9:45 to get there first. As soon as I walked out of the hotel I saw that about 200 others had the same idea about being early. When I finally got into the theater, I was to be relegated to about row 30 and although the screen was the regular movie screen size, I wanted to be upfront.
The theater began to fill up and the racing talk was going full speed. I noticed there was a seat on the end of the middle section on the front row in which no one was sitting. I kept an eye on that seat for 30 minutes and no one came down so I finally walked down and asked the guy sitting there if that seat was taken. He asked me "who do you pull for"? Fearing a loaded question but still a proud Petty fan, I answered "Richard Petty". That was definitely the right answer and I was able to sit right up front.
Being on the front row was good in that no one could block the view. It was, however, somewhat bad in that being that close somewhat distorted the picture. The sound in the theater seemed actually about 9 decibels more than actually being at the track but I learned to get by with that.
Being in that theater with all those fans was almost as good as being at the race. The fans were passionate and lusty cheers emanated from the specific sections where certain fans were sitting as their favorites would take the lead or be contenting for a position. There was very little, if any in fact, cheering for Andretti. To say the fans were partisan NASCAR folks with a strong dislike for open wheel interlopers would be understating the obvious.
When the race ended under caution and Andretti had won, there was a chorus of "boos" and someone three a wadded-up popcorn box at the movie screen. My new friend who allowed me to sit up front walked out with me, said goodby and walked the opposite direction as I walked back to my hotel. I was in a pretty good mood because I had gotten to see the race, even if only on a movie screen, and I had met several rabid race fans with whom to share the experience.
Because I had to be back on the ship at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday, I decided to go on back Monday afternoon. I got my shower Monday morning and was getting dressed to head back when I saw the birthstone ring lying on the dresser. I silently committed to mind that the ring would always remind me that I missed being in Daytona, but I had seen the race. Turns out, I didn't need the ring for that.
When I got back to the ship, all my buddies who did not know I had been snowed in, wanted to know what it was like in Florida. When I told them I had been in beautiful downtown Norfolk the entire weekend, they were hesitant to believe me. After all, at that point in history, there WERE signs in certain areas warning "Dogs and Sailors Stay Off the Grass". Those signs didn't concern me. They did NOT warn against Race Fans so I was OK.
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.
updated by @tim-leeming: 09/11/20 04:28:13AM
