[h=2]2016 was the closest finish of the Daytona 500[/h]

 

Daytona 500 finishes 1979-2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PqRUPmaBcI

This is every Daytona 500 finish from 1979 to 2013. This video took me three hours to make.
by epzik8

 

Motorsports Hall of Fame

http://www.motorsportshalloffame.com/?homepage=true

The International Motorsports Hall of Fame is the perfect pit stop during your travels. Treat your family to an exclusive tour of the biggest, baddest and most competitive race track in NASCAR - Talladega Superspeedway.

 

[h=1]

The Rolex 24 at Daytona 2012 Presented by Continental Tire[/h]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAokr8m0y7U

Produced by Mad Media and directed by the Martelli Brothers, the "The Rolex 24 at Daytona: Presented by Continental Tire" will leave you wanting more. Capturing the essence of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and featuring interviews with GRAND-AM regulars such as Max Papis, Ricky Taylor, Memo Rojas, and Patrick Dempsey along with veteran drivers such as Hurley Haywood. From sun down to sun up, the film whittles 24 hours into a 45 minute, action-packed program filled with driver insight and a behind-the-scenes look at the 50th running of one of the most recognized races in all of motorsports.

• [h=4]Provider Channel[/h]
  • The Orchard Movies
• [h=4]Release date[/h]
  • 2013
• [h=4]Running time[/h]
  • 45:04
• [h=4]Language[/h]
  • English
• [h=4]Actors[/h]
  • Michael Waltrip
  • Will Turner
  • Ricky Taylor
  • Boris Said
  • Memo Rojas
  • Scott Pruett
  • Travis Pastrana
  • Max Papis
  • Oz Negri
  • Juan Pablo Montoya
  • Allan McNish
  • Jamie McMurray
  • Brian Johnson
  • Hurley Haywood
  • Alex Gurney
  • Memo Gidley
  • Dario Franchitti
  • Scott Dixon
  • Patrick Dempsey
  • Ryan Briscoe
  • Bill Auberlen
  • Max Angelelli
  • AJ Allmendinger
• [h=4]Director[/h]
  • Martelli Brothers
• [h=4]Producers[/h]
  • Travis Roffler
  • Mad Media

 

Davey Allison wins 1992 Daytona 500

Davey Allison's Radio Day at Daytona

Thursday, 16 February 2017


Kelly Crandall / Images by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images

ABOVE: Davey Allison celebrates in victory lane with crew chief Larry McReynolds (left) and car owner Robert Yates after winning the Daytona 500 in 1992.


Davey Allison not only had to hold off Morgan Shepherd to win the 1992 Daytona 500 but also drown out the noise.
Not just any noise, but interference on his Robert Yates Racing team radio from a fan.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of Allison's win. Some may remember Allison, driving the No. 28 Ford, dominated the '92 Daytona 500 for his 14th career win by leading 127 of 200 laps. After taking the lead for the final time on lap 171, Allison looked to keep Shepherd at bay while the two held a nice gap over the rest of the field.
Then came the voice.


Larry McReynolds was Allison's crew chief and recalls how during the week leading up to the Daytona 500 one of the team's radios went missing. This was back when fans could come and go in the garages and often time work areas consisted of nothing more than benches placed here and there. Of course, the benches often served as the landing spot for team equipment, such as discarded radios.


"Somewhere about the middle of that week one of our radios took missing, couldn't find it; looked everywhere for it," McReynolds told RACER. "Well, with 20 laps to go in the (Daytona) 500, we found it."


A fan had the radio and was now talking to Allison as he tried to win the biggest race of his career. McReynolds said the talking was non-stop with things like, "You better go, he's (Shepherd) going to get you," said. Or, "He's right on your rear bumper."
Unfazed, Allison took the checkered flag four years after finishing second to his father, Bobby Allison (pictured celebrating in '92 with Davey and mom Judy), in the same event.
The odds were stacked against Allison all week. Not only with the radio interference, but Allison was driving a back-up car by the time the Daytona 500 rolled around.
The Yates team entered Daytona Speedweeks with a car they had decided would run in what was then the Busch Clash as well as the Daytona 500. McReynolds knew his peers thought he was crazy, except the thinking was to get a good test session in with the car in race conditions.


Allison finished fourth in the Clash with McReynolds holding his breath, hoping he would not be caught up in an accident. Throughout the week's practice sessions, things continued to go smoothly. Until five minutes to go in final practice.
"Somebody blew an engine in Turn 1 and 2 and Davey got in the oil and killed that racecar, so we got the back-up car out," McReynolds said. "NASCAR was much more liberal back then – practice was over (but) they let us make five laps with the back-up car. It was a car that had been raced the year before; it wasn't a brand-new car, and I was a little dejected because I knew it probably wasn't as good a car as the car we had been running."
Allison finished third in his Duel qualifying race after starting in the rear, giving McReynolds the confidence the team had something to work with going into the Daytona 500. But sometimes, even the best-laid plans can encounter a little disturbance.
"Davey being the focused individual, he knew what was going on," McReynolds said. "He just tuned it out and went on to win the race."

 

[h=2]Richard Petty on Daytona 500s past and present[/h] Monday, 27 February 2017


By Eric Johnson / Images by Nigel Kinrade and NASCAR archive

It's funny getting an audience with the King. Even with racecars roaring by intermittently off in the high banks distance and basically creating a jet wash wall of sound, he almost has a rhythm in the way he speaks. Rising action, falling action, almost perfectly timed pauses – his very own comprehension of the English language – Richard Petty speaks like no other. And whether he means it or not, it just all sort of makes perfect sense.
Petty has been coming to Daytona International Speedway since they pulled the curtain back on the place for the First Annual 500 Mile NASCAR International Sweepstakes at Daytona in 1959. While his engine coughed up some valve-and-cam pieces and he only ran eight laps in total, he shook it off to fight another day. In fact, five years later he won the thing and we all know happened as the years clicked off.
Taking a quick break from a seemingly endless line of fans, sponsors and well-wishers at 2017 Daytona 500, the King talked about the Great American Race and the 31-degree talking walls of the house Big Bill France built. High banks, high drama, high hopes and a higher calling, in his 32 year-run at the Daytona 500, there just isn't a person on planet earth who knows more about this larger than life kaleidoscope of speed, sound and vision. Take it away King Richard.
Richard, you were here and ready to roll at the first Daytona 500 in 1959. What did you think of this place? I can't even begin to imagine what this all looked like to you and all of your competitors who showed up to race.
"When we showed up here, the first turn looked like it was 10 miles away. There was nothing in the infield. No buildings or anything. Up to then the biggest thing we had ever seen was Darlington, which was a little more than a mile. I was a 21-year-old kid and my eyes were about yeah big. It was fantastic to see it the first time."
What did your father Lee think? Was he as blown away as you?
"Yeah, it amazed him because he had never been on anything that big. The guys that had raced before on the other tracks, it took them a while to adapt to this kind of racetrack. To me, I had no experience so anything was new to me. The other guys had to unlearn in order to learn, so it took him a little while to adjust to it."
When you first went out in the car, what did you think? I mean the banking alone...
"We didn't run but 130 mile an hour, but that was unheard of in 1959. I mean, that was flat flying. So you go out and you run and the place is so big that you had no idea you were running wide open. You had no idea whether you were running 80 mile an hour or 280, you know what I mean? You'd come in and they'd say, 'You run 130,' and I'd say, 'I done what?' I'd never been that fast in my life, but you just didn't realize it."
And you had it pinned all the way around, huh?
"Yeah, the track was so big that you got no sensation of speed because the infield was way away from you and the grandstands were way away from you. The sensation of speed was more there when everything was close to you. When you're running 100 mile an hour and the fence is real close, you feel like you're running 200 mile an hour. Here, you run 200 mile an hour and you don't realize it."
What about the car back then? Did it get real squirrelly?
"No, no, the cars were very stable at 130 mile an hour, 140. We didn't get into the speed where handling really made a whole lot of difference. We just got in the car and didn't know any kind of setup or anything. We just had some springs in the car and they worked. Then, over a period of years, we kept getting faster and faster and we had to start working on the suspension. After we got the suspension figured out, they started working on aerodynamics and all that stuff."
Your dad Lee won the first Daytona 500 (pictured above, No. 42). After they sorted out who won it and he was declared the first winner, did you guys have any sort of idea of just what a huge deal this race and this track would become? Or was it more like, "Hey, we won this thing. That's kind of cool..."?
"Yeah, I think he won $19,000 or something for winning the race and that was a huge deal because I think at that time if you won a race, it was like $1,000 or something – maybe $1,500 at some of the bigger races. Winning $19,000, man, you thought you was rich!
"You know up until 1959, Darlington was our superspeedway. And then even three or four years after Daytona, Darlington was still the place everybody wanted to win. By 1964, Daytona had maybe not replaced Darlington, but was standing beside it, you know what I mean? Then Daytona got to be bigger and bigger and bigger. Daytona was the first superspeedway race I won. I won a bunch of short track races, but never a superspeedway. That year, in '64, Chrysler came out with the Hemi (note: A 426 cubic-inch engine with hemispherical combustion chambers) and we just had them outclassed, so it made it easy from that standpoint."

 

Richard Petty part 2


Of all the years you ran this race, I have to ask you about the 1970 Plymouth Superbird (above, as driven by Pete Hamilton that year). In my humble opinion, that was the coolest racecar of all-time. Even in 2017, it just strikes me as an unreal car.
"Yeah, it was. You know at that particular time, Ford and Chrysler and the factories was really into racing, so they went about as far as they could go with the engines at that time. Then they started going with the body and that started the aero wars. Then when they come with the Superbird and the Daytona 500 Dodge, it was all so far out there that NASCAR said, 'Whoa, we're going to have spaceships out here in two or three years!' You know it all started out as stock cars, but it got too far out there, so NASCAR just sent everybody home with those deals and everybody went back to more of a stock body. I'm glad they done that because it could have been weird by now."
You won seven NASCAR championships and seven Daytona 500s. To that end, I've heard drivers who have also won a title and a Daytona 500 say that winning the 500 was as big, if not bigger, than winning a title. What's your take on that?
"When I was winning championships, Daytona was more important than a championship. Now, the way they got things done, this is the first race of the year and they're already talking about points, you know what I mean? We got 36 races to go and they're already looking at winning a championship more than winning a race."
So back in the day, were you more of a guy that just wanted to win races as opposed to being some sort of "points racer"?

"I just wanted to win races and at the end of the year, if they added it up and you won a championship, fine. If you didn't, OK, we'll get it next year."
You won seven Daytona 500s. Is there one that just sticks out from all the others?
"Not really. You know, there were a couple that I lucked in and won, like 1979. And '76, I lucked out on winning that one. After winning all the races and not winning some races, it kind of balances itself up. Some of them we should have won and we had a better car, but others we lucked into. Some that you lost, you should have won. It all evened itself out.
As I watched the qualifying Duels, that sensation of speed and sound of the cars going around in a pack like they do on this 2.5-mile track is just mind boggling. It's so larger than life that it doesn't even look real...
"Oh yeah. It's still Daytona. We come back here in July and the thing looks like it shrunk up. It's still a big race and all that kind of stuff, but it's just not.... The Daytona 500 is like the Superbowl, the World Series, the Kentucky Derby. It is our showcase deal. No matter what, this is the showcase place.
If Big Bill France was able to show up here on Sunday and watch the race, do you think all this would astonish him?
"Yeah, I think it would blow his mind, too. He was very much of a visionary, but I don't know if there was anybody could look 59 years ahead and see what this thing. Think of all the things that started in 1959 that are not here anymore. And they were big things at that particular time, but they kind of faded away. Daytona has not faded away. It's a sensation, that's what it is. You watch it on TV and it's great and you can see all the moves and stuff, but it's nothing like being on the property where you hear it and smell it and being a part of it all."
And guessing what's going to happen on Sunday?
"Nobody knows. That's what keeps us all coming back. I mean, you can have the best car here and there is no sign you're going to win the race. You might have the worst car here and you still have a chance. This is a crapshoot. I've seen on the side of a car here that says Florida Lottery. That's what this is. This is the Daytona Lottery, OK?!

 

A perfect storm 1979 Daytona 500

A snow storm shut in the entire east coast on the same weekend that CBS had it's first live flag to flag coverage of the Daytona 500.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDrjxwrA0GE

These events came together to move NASCAR from a regional racing series to a national sport.

Many believe this is the point in time which was responsible for the downfall of open wheel racing in the US.

 

Nascar 2016 Untold stories of Daytona

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afRGMdl_Sy4

 

New Addition to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame Fans Can See Johnson’s 2006 Daytona 500-winning No. 48 Chevrolet
10/29/2014


TALLADEGA, AL – The International Motorsports Hall of Fame has been the home to some of the most historical artifacts in all of motorsports since 1983. Now on display in the prestigious venue, guests can see the car that many chased by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers – the No. 48 Chevrolet driven by Jimmie Johnson in winning the 2006 Daytona 500.
Ironically, Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet won the 48th Daytona 500. It was the first win for Johnson’s No. 48 car on a restrictor plate track, his 19th career victory and the first win on his streak of five straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Championships from 2006 until 2010. Johnson is a two-time winner at Talladega Superspeedway, including the closest finish in the history of NASCAR (2009) when he beat Clint Bowyer to the line by .002 second.
Adjacent to NASCAR’s Biggest and Most Competitive Track – Talladega Superspeedway - The International Motorsports Hall of Fame provides an incredible platform to take a step back in time and see some of the most prestigious automobiles in history. The Hall encompasses all styles of racing, including NASCAR, Indy Car, NHRA, Formula 1, and many unique one-of-a-kind vehicles. Since its creation, there has been an impeccable fascination with the automobile, and in the fine state of Alabama, lovers of motorsports have a destination they can go to see one of the largest collections of racing vehicles imaginable – The International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
Related Topics
International Motorsports Hall of Fame and Museum, Jimmie Johnson