Richard Petty, left, entertained President Ronald Reagan, center, on and off the track at Daytona in 1984.
Daytona International Speedway has been the site of July races since 1960, and it’s the site of many finishes that are still shown on the highlight reels.
Sunday’s final July race at Daytona may not have been one for the ages, but there have been plenty. Here are the ones that stand out.
It’s generally accepted that the 1984 Firecracker 400 featuring Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough remains the most memorable of the 60 summertime Cup Series races at Daytona International Speedway. The 2001 Coke 400 with Dale Earnhardt Jr. vs. Michael Waltrip is close but loses points because of Waltrip’s blatant unwillingness to even challenge his teammate in the final laps. (In truth, however, most race fans recognized and applauded Waltrip’s dive. It was, after all, Junior in front of him.)
The ’84 race between Petty and Yarborough had none of that unseemly skullduggery.
The Hall of Fame icons were the class of the field all afternoon, each knowing the other was his only serious competition. They were running 1-2 when Doug Heveron’s late-race crash in turn 1 set up a frantic dash back around to the yellow and white flags that, in effect, ended the race. (This was well before the current overtime system.) Petty beat Yarborough by about 2 feet, that being (in his mind) the shorter lower-line distance from turn 4 to the start/finish line.
His reward? A postrace meeting with President Ronald Reagan, a fellow Republican and one of Petty’s favorite politicians. It was also his 200th and last Cup Series victory, the last of his nine at DIS (seven Daytona 500s and two July 4 races) and the second (and last) for team owner Mike Curb. Sadly, Petty made 241 more starts over the next eight years before finally retiring after the 1992 season.
In addition to that classic, these midsummer races at DIS remain among the sport’s most memorable:
July 4, 1974: David Pearson leads Petty at the white flag, then abruptly slows and swings left approaching turn 1, forcing Petty to assume the lead well before he planned to. Moments later, after reeling in Petty along the backstretch as they entered turn 3, Pearson drives by for the victory. He used the tried-and-true slingshot move that Petty knew was coming but was powerless to defend. Petty carped mildly about Pearson’s strategy, saying it was dangerous and put both of them at risk. Despite that brief moment of rancor, they remained respected rivals and devoted friends for years.
July 4, 1985: Driving an “R&D” Chevrolet from the creative mind of crew chief Gary Nelson at DiGard Racing, journeyman Greg Sacks stuns NASCAR with his only Cup Series victory in 263 starts. Although the winning car is generally accepted as cleverly tricked-up beyond belief, NASCAR lets the victory stand — but tells Nelson and DiGard to never bring it back. Years later, NASCAR hires Nelson as one of its leading tech inspectors, apparently figuring the organization would rather have him on the right side of the rule book.
July 5, 1997: Popular journeyman driver John Andretti gives Ford-based Cale Yarborough Racing its first and only Cup Series victory — and his first of two as a driver — in beating Terry Labonte. Mario’s nephew starts third and leads five times for 113 of the 160 laps, including the final 24. Andretti makes 56 more starts before getting his second and final victory, for Petty Enterprises at Martinsville in the spring of 1999.
July 7, 2001: In one of racing’s all-time most endearing feel-good moments, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the Coke 400 less than five months after his father’s death in the Daytona 500. Michael Waltrip, who won that star-crossed 500 with a helpful push from Earnhardt Jr., repays the favor by pushing Junior to victory while finishing second himself. Despite the obvious tanking, virtually nobody complained that Waltrip didn’t make a serious effort to pass his DEI teammate in the final laps.
Venues notwithstanding, the 1984 Firecracker 400 stands among the 10 most memorable and important Cup Series races of all time — period. It ranks right up there with these:
The three-wide photo-finish of Lee Petty’s victory over Johnny Beauchamp in the inaugural 1959 Daytona 500; the last-lap, last-turn Richard Petty-Pearson accident in the ’76 Daytona 500; the last-lap Yarborough-Donnie Allison wreck in the ’79 Daytona 500; Bill Elliott’s ‘85 Talladega 500 victory when he spectacularly rallied from 5 miles behind under green; Elliott’s historic ’85 Southern 500 victory for the Winston Million in the first year of the promotion; Jeff Gordon’s victory in the inaugural ‘94 Brickyard 400; Dale Earnhardt’s unforgettable ‘98 Daytona 500 victory after 20 years of frustration; Earnhardt’s death on the last lap of the ‘01 Daytona 500, a moment that accelerated NASCAR’s effort to improve cockpit and retaining wall safety; and Ricky Craven’s fender-banging “by inches” victory over Kurt Busch at Darlington in ’03.
Source: Read Full Article