Daytona 500

Date
Sun 18th February 1979 (UTC)
Sun 18th February 1979 (Local)

Timestamp
1979-02-18T00:00:00

Time

00:00:00 UTC

Poster

Your Rating (Click a star below)

Star off icon

Total Rating
(0 users)

Thumb

Square Poster

League
NASCAR Cup Series

Season
1979

Round
1

Status

Location
Daytona International Speedway

Video Highlights

Description

The 1979 Daytona 500, the 21st annual running of the event, was the second race of the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. It was held on February 18, 1979 at Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Florida. It has been called the most important race in stock car history.

The race was televised live "flag-to-flag", a rarity in the era, and the first for a 500-mile race in the United States. Camera angles such as the "in-car" view were introduced to viewers from all over the United States.

On the final lap, race leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison collided with each other on the backstretch. Both drivers' races ended in the grass infield. The wreck allowed Richard Petty, at the time of the crash over one-half lap behind the leaders, to claim his sixth Daytona 500 win.

As Petty made his way to Victory Lane to celebrate, a fight erupted between Yarborough, Donnie Allison and his brother, Bobby, at the site of the backstretch wreck. Both events were caught by television cameras and broadcast live.

The race brought national publicity to NASCAR. Due to a large winter storm, parts of the Midwest and most of the Northeastern United States were snowed in, leaving a very sizable audience to watch the race who were not traditionally part of NASCAR's demographic, which largely drew from Southeastern states. 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."