Daytona’s ‘other’ race | Facts and figures, from Firecracker to Pepsi to Coke Zero

While the Daytona 500 has remained relatively locked in place over the decades — as NASCAR’s traditional season opener and its biggest spectacle — its summertime sister race has seen a slew of makeover since its 1959 debut at the brand new Daytona International Speedway.

The time of the race, the date of the race, the length of the race, and on several occasions even the name of the race has changed.

Let’s thumb through the history pages of this 400-mile automobile race and find some of the key points of interest some of you might not have known, and others might’ve forgotten.

In the beginning

As noted on several occasions, including this week, Daytona’s summer race began as a fill-in event for an Indy-car race that never came to be. It replaced the Raleigh 250 on NASCAR’s July 4 schedule slot in 1959 and was smartly labeled the Firecracker 250.

Local racing hero Fireball Roberts won the first one, driving a Pontiac prepared by another local legend, Smokey Yunick. It took Fireball just an hour and 46 minutes to turn 100 laps. He finished nearly a lap ahead of runner-up Joe Weatherly, who was the only other driver on the lead lap.

Gentlemen, start your changes

The first big tweak to the Firecracker 250 turned it into the Firecracker 400 (which, by the way, a lot of graying locals still call it). Fireball Roberts also won the first Firecracker 400, this time driving a Ford for Holman-Moody.

It was hardly the last change to the race …

∎ Three times in the race’s first 25 years, it was officially known as the Medal of Honor Firecracker 400 (1961, 1971, 1973). Bill France Sr., head of NASCAR and the Speedway, invited all living Medal of Honor recipients to attend in those three years.

∎ Pepsi was one of the first corporate sponsors for the Speedway and its partnership help fund the track’s earliest days. In 1985, Pepsi upped its relationship in a naming-rights deal and the July 4 race became the Pepsi Firecracker 400. Most folks still called it the Firecracker 400, of course, which led to ….

∎ In 1989, the Pepsi-Speedway deal was sweetened and the Firecracker name went away forever. Hello, Pepsi 400. In those days, the track’s PR staff had a “swear jar” in the office, and staffers had to put a dollar in the jar any time they mistakenly used the old F-word, as in Firecracker.

∎ After 29 years planted on the Fourth of July, the 400 was moved to the first Saturday in July, beginning in 1988.

∎ After 39 years of starting at either 10 or 11 a.m., in 1998, the race was moved to nighttime after the Speedway was ringed with lights.

∎ In a move that stunned old-timers who recalled the Speedway’s earliest days and Bill France Sr.’s devotion to the Pepsi brand, Coke became the official soft drink of Daytona in 2008 and, naturally, the July race would get another name change: The Coke Zero 400 was unveiled.

∎ That name lasted until 2018, when Coca-Cola tweaked the name of the product — to Coke Zero Sugar — and the race followed suit.

∎ The biggest change yet came just four years ago, when the race was moved out of July entirely, to late August, where it would serve as the final race of the 26-race regular season. Well, except for this year, when it was scheduled as the next-to-last race of the regular season.

Biggest winners

∎ David Pearson has the record for the most summertime Daytona wins, with five. Cale Yarborough and Tony Stewart are next with four each.

∎ The Wood Brothers’ nine wins are the most for any team. Hendrick Motorsports is next with seven. Four of the Wood Brothers wins came with Pearson, two with Yarborough, and one each with A.J. Foyt, Neil Bonnett and Buddy Baker.

∎ Along with his seven Daytona 500s, Richard Petty won three Firecracker 400s, including the 1984 race that produced his 200th career victory.

∎ Before he finally won his one and only Daytona 500 in 1998, Dale Earnhardt won two Pepsi 400s, in 1990 and ’93.

This-n-That

∎ The 1998 race was moved to a previously open date in October due to wildfires that overwhelmed the surrounding area during the summer. The Speedway was used as a staging area for groups of firefighters, including some crews who came from other tracks owned by Daytona’s parent organization.

∎ The Richard Petty-David Pearson rivalry of the 1970s, generally friendly among the drivers themselves, nearly boiled over at the end of the 1974 Firecracker 400. Petty was on Pearson’s rear bumper and Pearson knew he was doomed to be passed on the final lap. After taking the white flag, Pearson slowed quickly and Petty had to swerve hard to his right to miss Pearson and take the lead. Pearson then caught and passed Petty for the win. In a rare move, Petty confronted Pearson in the post-race press conference — “David usually runs a saner race,” he said.

∎ Petty (200) and Pearson (105) are first and second in career Cup Series wins. Amazingly, they finished 1-2 in 63 races, with Pearson winning 33 of them. When Pearson won three straight Firecracker 400s from 1972-74, Petty was the runner-up each year.

∎ Tony Stewart took the checkered flag in 2005 at 1:40 a.m. Sunday morning. Saturday rain delayed the start of the race until 10:42 p.m.

∎ As Jeff Gordon turned the final lap under caution to win the 2002 race, he did so under a rainstorm of seat cushions that had been part of a promotional giveaway. This was during a time frame when fans were clamoring for an end to yellow-flag finishes, and within a couple of years they basically got their wish with added use of the green-white-checkers format.

∎ Heading into this year’s 400-miler, only five drivers have swept both the 500 and 400 since Daytona’s 1959 opening: Fireball Roberts (1962, when the 400 was a 250), Cale Yarborough (1968), Lee Roy Yarbrough (1969), Bobby Allison (1982) and Jimmie Johnson (2013).

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR at Daytona in summer, from Firecracker to Coke Zero