Daytona 500 Memories

Neal Pilson
Former CBS Sports executive
“I made the deal to put the race on CBS [in 1979, marking the first time the Daytona 500 aired live from start to finish]. Barry Frank was the head of programming and I was the head of business. It took a couple of days. I remember that Bill [France, the NASCAR chairman] insisted we get an agreement written and signed before I left town.

“By the time we got to the day of the race, it was pouring rain. We already knew that there was a huge snowstorm in the Northeast and the Midwest that was creating a playing field for some ratings success. But now it’s raining hard the morning of the race. All the CBS brass was down there for the race and my boss turns to me and says, ‘We don’t have to pay for this if it’s rained out, do we?’ And I said, ‘Not only do we have to pay, we have to air it live on Monday.’ Not the best feeling.

“It stopped raining — we got the race in — and then it rained for two more days. So we got very lucky. On top of that, it was a hugely entertaining race. … You had [Cale] Yarborough and [Donnie] Allison slide off the track in the last lap and Richard Petty crossing the finish line [to win]. Then one of our cameras picked up the fight [Allison, his brother Bobby and Yarborough scuffled following the wreck]. So you have the king of racing winning, top stars fighting and the next day it gets front-page coverage in The New York Times. We were all very excited.”

Max Muhleman
Sports marketing consultant
"I was at the first one in 1959 as a young sportswriter, when Lee Petty won — it took three days and they had to reverse the winner [when Johnny Beauchamp had been declared the unofficial winner at the photo finish]. What I remember covering it in the early years was the fear among the drivers. It was by far the biggest track that they had ever driven on and the banks were so high and wide open. Only you, God, the gas pedal and Goodyear tires determined whether you got back.

“Most of the drivers were privately concerned about whether the tires would stand up [on the track]. It was before fuel cells, before much of the cockpit strengthening had been done. There was apprehension but it turned out fine. It became a must-see almost immediately — a track like this had never been built or seen before. It was a fantastic leap of faith by Bill France.

“And over time there was just more of everything. Then when you had that first one on CBS [in 1979] it really took off. It should be like Yankee Stadium — they ought to put a statue of Cale [Yarborough] and the Allison brothers in that turn where the fight happened. That was a lightning bolt out of the blue for the sport. It didn’t electrocute NASCAR; it electrified it.”

Rick Hendrick
Owner, Hendrick Motorsports
“I think the ones that came to mind are probably the ones that we won. Our first one [in 1986] with Geoff Bodine was really special, and so was the one with Darrell [Waltrip in 1989]. But the most memorable was when we ran 1-2-3 — and I wasn’t even at the race. [Hendrick drivers Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Ricky Craven took first, second and third place in the 1997 race.]. I’ll never forget that one. I was at home with leukemia, and to have that happen during such a tough time was really special.

“The first time I went down there I was with a friend and I had to stand on a camper behind Victory Lane to watch the race. Then a couple of years later I was in the race [as an owner]. What you notice first is the sheer size of the place — it blew you away. Then you look around and see the Junior Johnsons and the Richard Pettys and the Wood Brothers. I was like, ‘I’m not supposed to be here. What in the hell am I doing here?’ It was a real humbling experience. Every time I roll into that place, I think about how lucky I am to be there.”

Darrell Waltrip
Fox broadcaster
1989 Daytona 500 winner
“It’s triumph and tragedy. I’ve lost a couple of my best buddies down there [to fatal wrecks]. I’ve crashed. For a while, it seemed like I had my own private room at Halifax Hospital. If you go to Daytona long enough, there’s not a human emotion in your body that you won’t experience. Every high, every low, sad and happy, all of it.

“If you watch racing on TV, a wreck never looks very bad. As a driver, I knew that [Dale Earnhardt’s fatal crash in 2001] was one of them. You always look at the angle of impact. When a car jackknifes and turns dead into the outside wall, that’s the worst impact it can have. You have no time to brace yourself. When I saw Kenny [Schrader] waving his arms at [Earnhardt’s] car, I knew something was wrong. That race was the most emotional race I’ve ever seen. Here’s my brother [Michael Waltrip] winning the biggest race in the sport as a driver for Dale’s team — it was like a fairy tale. And then realizing Dale is gone was my worst nightmare.”

Ken Squier
Broadcaster
“When Bill [France] built that facility, they had raced on the beach until that time. And the Daytona 500 started at a time when our romance with the motor car was running high. Cars were a huge part of our economy and there was the whole sense of independence and freedom and romance with the car. So Bill turned that into a sport.

“Daytona had a different configuration and it was huge — 2 1/2 miles — and those high banks. It was a new experience. When CBS got the race, they worked very hard at it — it was a lot of the same crew that worked on the Masters. We had an incredible audience in 1979 and a great finish, but the finish was no better than 1976 [when David Pearson dragged his damaged car across the finish line after wrecking with Richard Petty]. Petty’s car died and Pearson was going about 40 miles an hour at the finish. A friend of mine used to always say at the Daytona 500 that we were there to celebrate the Redneck High Holy Days, and that’s about right.”

Humpy Wheeler
President, COO, Speedway Motorsports
“In the early days, it was the puzzle of Daytona. Everybody was either afraid of it or they thought it was too easy. It was fast but it didn’t appear fast to the drivers until they got sideways. The draft emerged out of Daytona, things we hadn’t seen. In the early days, people thought Bill France was crazy for building it that big and that high-banked. Of course, we knew what he was doing it for — he wanted to be faster than Indianapolis.

“It really got big when CBS started televising the race and they started pushing ‘The Great American Race.’ We all wondered how is your biggest event going to be your first one of the year. Because that doesn’t make sense. But when TV gets behind something, you can make a huge event. Look at the Super Bowl and what they did for the Masters. That’s what put it where it is.

“And you had the fight [in 1979] — a culmination of curiosity of what NASCAR was all about. The snowstorm had as much to do with it as anything because there wasn’t anything else on TV that day that would make you change the channel. People didn’t have 300 channels. Up until the fight, these were just a bunch of cars going around in circles. But what were the people inside the cars like? All of the sudden they got out and became human beings. And America loves a good fight anyway.”

Cliff Pennell
Former marketing executive, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Principal, marketing firm Stonebreaker
"When you think of Daytona, you think of going to Mecca. I don’t care whether you’re a sponsor, a team owner or a driver, it’s all about going to the Mecca of racing. It’s the thing that gets everybody the most interested. Whenever we would run a fan promotion or a sweepstakes to come to the 500, it was by far the most popular thing. And it always got the biggest VIP response from our executives. It’s the first race of the year and the look in the eyes of the teams and the drivers is just different at Daytona. One of the ones that sticks out for me was 1998, when Dale Earnhardt finally won. To see all the crews and teams lined up [to congratulate Earnhardt after the race] — it was just unbelievable. Dale let down his guard and he was just like a kid. He was so happy.”

Tom Cotter
Former motorsports marketing executive
“The place itself is so special because of the track and the heritage. Even before that big place existed, they raced on the beach down there for decades. It was the center of speed even before Bill France came to town. I remember for the 50th anniversary of NASCAR [in 1998], our company was working on the campaign with the media, all the history and so on. And we got a tour bus at Daytona before the 500 and took everybody on a tour — Bill France Jr. did the tour. He would say, ‘Pull over — you see this house, this is where so-and-so lived and they helped us do this or that.’ It was amazing and it was so much fun to take these media people who had been coming down there for years and show them a lot of things they didn’t know about the place.”