1979 Daytona 500

The 1979 Daytona 500 was the second race of the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) season. It was held on February 18, 1979. Critics consider the race to be the most important race in stock car history. ¹

A crash and subsequent fight between leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, along with Donnie's brother Bobby, brought national publicity to NASCAR. Motorsports announcer and editor Dick Berggren said: "Nobody knew it then, but that was the race that got everything going. It was the first 'water cooler' race, the first time people had stood around water coolers on Monday and talked about seeing a race on TV the day before. It took a while - years, maybe - to realize how important it was."¹

Television

The 1979 Daytona 500 was the first 500-mile race to be broadcast in its entirety live on national television in the United States.²³ Races were shown on television but as an example, the Indianapolis 500 was broadcast on tape delay that evening in this era, and usually in edited form. Most races aired during this period were only broadcast starting with the final quarter to half of the race, as was the procedure for ABC's IndyCar broadcasts on their Wide World of Sports program.

CBS signed a new contract with NASCAR to telecast the race. Ken Squier, David Hobbs and Chris Economaki were the booth announcers with Ned Jarrett and Mike Joy in the pits for that race. The day was fortunate for CBS as a major snowstorm known as the Presidents Day Snowstorm of 1979 bogged down most of the Northeast and parts of the Midwestern United States, increasing the viewership of the event. The race introduced two new innovative uses of TV cameras: The "in-car" camera and the low angle "speed shot", which are now considered standard in all telecasts of auto racing. Motor Racing Network was broadcasting the race on the radio, and their broadcasters include Dick Berggren.¹

Qualifying

Buddy Baker qualified on the pole, but his race ended on lap 38 after his engine expired. ⁴ The rest of the five fastest qualifiers include Donnie Allison, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, and Benny Parsons.

Race

The race started under the yellow flag for 15 laps due to wet conditions after overnight rain the night before the race. Donnie Allison lost control of his car on lap 32 (of 200 laps) and forced Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison to take evasive action. All three cars spun through the backstretch infield which was slippery and muddy after a morning rain. Yarborough was forced to repair his car, and fell two laps behind the leader. He made up both laps through a series of caution periods.

Finish

Donnie Allison was leading the race on the final lap with Yarborough drafting him tightly. As Yarborough attempted a slingshot pass at the end of the backstretch, Allison attempted to block him. Yarborough refused to give ground and as he pulled alongside Allison, his left side tires left the pavement and went into the wet and muddy infield grass. Yarborough lost control of his car and contacted Allison's car halfway down the backstretch. As both drivers tried to regain control, their cars made contact three more times before locking together and crashing into the outside wall in turn three. After the cars settled in the infield grass (short of the finish line), Donnie Allison and Yarborough began to argue. After they stopped arguing, Bobby Allison, who was one lap down at that point, stopped, and a fight broke out. Richard Petty, who was over half a lap behind before the incident, went on to win. ² With the brawl in the infield, the television audience was shown seconds of Petty's win. The story made the front page of The New York Times Sports section. NASCAR had arrived as a national sport, and began to expand from its Southeastern United States base and become a national sport, shedding its moonshine running roots along the way.

Reactions from Yarborough and the Allisons were not surprisingly different. Yarborough said "I was going to pass him and win the race, but he turned left and crashed me. So, hell, I crashed him back. If I wasn't going to get back around, he wasn't either." ¹ Allison said "The track was mine until he hit me in the back," he says. "He got me loose and sideways, so I came back to get what was mine. He wrecked me, I didn't wreck him." ¹

Race results

DVD

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Al Pearce (March 23, 2003). "No. 1: An ending for the ages". Daily Press. Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
^ ^a ^b Mark Aumann (January 23, 2003). "1979: Petty winds up in 'fist' place". Turner Sports Interactive. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ "1979 Daytona 500". Amazon.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ ^a ^b "1979 Daytona 500". racing-reference.info. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.

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