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'79 Daytona 500 Fight, TV Coverage Help Propel NASCAR

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By HOLLY CAIN, Tribune correspondent

Published: February 12, 2008

Updated: 02/11/2008 11:25 pm

DAYTONA BEACH - Nearly 400 fans stood in line for more than an hour at a recent autograph signing Bobby Allison held in Tampa. Many congratulated him on the 84 wins and three Daytona 500 victories collected during a celebrated driving career.

Many, many more waited, hoping to talk about The Fight.

The picture of Allison wrestling Cale Yarborough to the ground on the Daytona International Speedway backstretch during the 1979 Daytona 500 has become an iconic symbol of NASCAR. If not the most famous photo or video footage in the race's 50-year history, it is surely among the most significant.

"People bring it up all the time, no matter where I am," Allison said. "You've just got to laugh about it because crying doesn't do any good. And NASCAR is still benefiting from it, they show it all the time."

Then Allison paused and wondered aloud, "I don't know what would have happened if I had just kept going around the track and not stopped."

Fortunately for modern-day NASCAR, Allison didn't second-guess himself in the heat of the moment.

A national network television audience - much of it snowed-in - got its first full glimpse of stock car racing that February afternoon - a competitive race with a final lap featuring a fistfight among three of NASCAR's biggest stars on the backstretch and a fight to the checkered flag won by Richard Petty over Darrell Waltrip and Indy car legend A.J. Foyt.

As Petty rolled into Daytona 500 Victory Lane for a then-record sixth time, Allison pulled over on the backstretch infield to offer his brother Donnie a ride back to the garage.

Donnie Allison and Yarborough wrecked while battling for position on the last lap. They climbed out of their damaged cars and exchanged angry words as Bobby Allison approached on the cool-down lap.

"Cale started yelling at me saying the wreck was somehow my fault. Then I questioned Cale's ancestry and that didn't settle him down any," Bobby Allison said. "He comes running up to me while I'm still strapped in the car and hits me in the face. I said, 'I've got to address this right now or run from him the rest of my life.'

"That's when he started beating on my fist with his nose."

It played out live on NASCAR's network television debut. It was the first flag-to-flag coverage of a race, buoyed by a larger than anticipated audience due to a severe snowstorm in the Northeast that kept people indoors and in front of their television sets. It was the perfect storm for NASCAR.

"Hollywood couldn't have written it," longtime NASCAR executive Jim Hunter said. "If I had been a sportswriter then, my lead would have been, 'Oh, by the way, Richard Petty won again.' It totally overshadowed the winner of the race."

"It was one of the defining moments of the Daytona 500 and of NASCAR. And you have to remember this started out with a photo finish in its first race."

The increased attention meant increased accountability. NASCAR fined all three drivers, even if the sanctioning body smiled behind closed doors. Allison finished 11{+t}{+h} in the race and said he still had to withdraw money from his checking account to pay the $6,000 fine.

It was not the most dramatic Daytona 500 finish. That distinction tends to go to Richard Petty and David Pearson colliding door-to-door and spinning under the checkered flag in 1976.

It is not the most celebrated Daytona 500. That honor belongs to Dale Earnhardt's 1998 triumph after 20 tries.

It wasn't even the most compelling storyline for Allison, who edged his son, Davey, for the 1988 Daytona 500 win, the only 1-2 finish for a father and son.

But the 1979 Daytona 500 did take full advantage of a captive audience, earning fans for all the right and wrong reasons.

It displayed intense personalities and intense competition. It proved stock car racing every bit as compelling a sports drama as football or baseball. It put NASCAR on the map and in America's consciousness.

"Look at the shows on TV now," said Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 Ford. "Everyone wants the suspense and drama. That's what people want to see: the pushing, the shoving. I don't care what you say, people go to hockey games to see the fight."

Ironically, the first headlines out of this year's Daytona Speedweeks involved a confrontation between two former NASCAR Sprint Cup champions, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch. They collided on-track while practicing Friday night and reportedly scuffled in the NASCAR officials' trailer later. By Saturday morning, each issued statements praising the other's talents and assuring that the matter was finished.

Likewise, the Allison brothers and Yarborough remain friendly. They also are aware of the attention, however unintended, they earned themselves and their sport.

"We raced hard for 3 1/2 hours and then we're out there scuffling," Allison said. "It proved we were sincere. It gave NASCAR credibility that this is serious competition to us."

As for him and Yarborough?

"We have a big laugh about it," Allison said. "We're confident our efforts did a big service for NASCAR."

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