Livescore
Throughout the 2024 NASCAR season, Ken Martin, director of historical content for the sanctioning body, will offer his suggestions on which historical races fans should watch from the NASCAR Classics library in preparation for each race weekend.
Martin has worked exclusively for NASCAR since 2008 but has been involved with the sport since 1982, overseeing various projects. He has worked in the broadcast booth for hundreds of races, assisting the broadcast team with different tasks. This includes calculating the “points as they run” for the historic 1992 finale, the Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The following suggestions are Ken‘s picks to watch before this Saturday‘s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
The third annual July 4th race at the newly opened Daytona International Speedway was the 32nd race on the 52-race schedule.
The 30-car field was full of names transcendent through time. Junior Johnson, Buck Baker, Joe Weatherly, Fred Lorenzen, Ned Jarrett, Ralph Earnhardt, Tiny Lund and defending series champion Rex White were just some of the bigger names filling the field.
Another of those names, Fireball Roberts, started the race on the pole alongside a younger driver who was in the middle of his second Cup Series campaign.
That driver was Spartanburg, South Carolina‘s David Pearson, who was just 26 years old.
Pearson was racing a partial schedule in 1961 and was just a handful of starts removed from winning the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. That was the first victory of his young career, finishing one spot ahead of Roberts.
History was made at Daytona that weekend as it marked the first nationally televised NASCAR event that was presented in a tape-delay format. Bill France Sr. was in the booth for the event, while Chris Economaki worked the pits for his first TV broadcast.
Roberts and Weatherly traded the lead back and forth a handful of times through the race‘s first 20 laps before Roberts took control.
In the end, Pearson held off a hard-charging Lorenzen at the start/finish line for the second victory of his Cup Series career.
Every once in a while, a small moment can turn out to be something that can alter the future. The summer race at Daytona in 1966 proved to be just that.
Sam McQuagg showed up to Daytona with an inch-and-a-half spoiler attached to the rear deck lid of his Dodge Charger. McQuagg and his team developed the spoiler over a few weeks in the middle of June after struggling mightily to show speed.
The Columbus, Georgia native was not necessarily someone who was looked at for being a threat to win heading into Daytona, even with the new spoiler. Daytona was set to be the 30th start of his career, with a career-best finish of third coming at Bristol Motor Speedway in 1965. More noticeably, McQuagg had 18 DNFs over that span, including his previous four starts due to mechanical issues.
The new spoiler seemingly paid off for the Ray Nichels-powered team in qualifying as McQuagg put the No. 98 Dodge in fourth. He sat behind a trio of fast cars, including pole-winner LeeRoy Yarbrough, Richard Petty and Curtis Turner.
Attrition proved to be one of the toughest battles under the July sky that day. Seventeen of the 40 starters finished the race in the garage, including the polesitter, who only made it 126 laps.
Petty was involved in a mid-race crash, while Mario Andretti, Buck Baker, Buddy Baker and Paul Goldsmith were among other names not to make it to the finish.
McQuagg surprised everyone, leading seven times for a race-high 126 laps en route to the first and only Cup Series victory of his career. Second-place finisher Darel Dieringer coasted across the line for a second-place finish as his No. 16 car ran out of gas.
Sometimes, everything just seems to fall into place to create a memorable day.
Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States, kicked off the July 4 celebration in Daytona with the command to start engines before eventually making his way to the MRN radio booth.
One of the biggest story lines was that of Richard Petty, who had just picked up his 199th career victory less than two months earlier at Dover Motor Speedway. Petty was in sole command of the most victories in series history but found tough luck after his Delaware triumph.
Petty‘s 13th-place finish at Pocono Raceway was his only finish in between the two events where he finished above 23rd. His cold streak dropped him from sixth to ninth in the series points standings.
He was always strong at Daytona and qualified sixth for the Firecracker 400. Petty would have a hoard of strong cars to beat if he wanted that 200th victory to come at Daytona as Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, Terry Labonte and David Pearson all qualified in front of him. All of those drivers have since been enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Yarborough was driving a partial schedule in 1984 but was just as fast as ever. He kicked off the season with a victory in the Daytona 500 while also winning at Talladega Superspeedway and Pocono. Over his first eight starts of the season, he finished fourth or better in five of them. It was no surprise he put his No. 28 Chevrolet on the pole at Daytona for the second time that season.
Yarborough led 79 of the race‘s first 124 laps, but it was Petty who was in command of the race as the final laps passed by.
The race came down to Petty and Yarborough battling for the win in a thrilling race back to the start/finish line after a crash involving Doug Heveron brought out the yellow flag with two laps remaining. With the race ending under yellow, whoever made it back to the line first would most certainly be able to make the final two laps behind the pace car on the way to victory.
Petty and his No. 43 car beat Yarborough to the line by inches for the 200th victory of his career.
Surprisingly, Yarborough pulled off the track one lap early by accident and was credited with a third-place finish behind Petty and Harry Gant.
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